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RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



By 
WILLIAM MacDONALD 



Select Statutes, 1861-1898. 

Select Documents Illustrative op the 

HiSTOET OF THE U. S. 

documentast socrcb book of american 
History. 1606-1913. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 



BY 

WILLIAM MacDONALD 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1922 

All rights reaerved, 



PBINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



^ih 



^ 



OOPTUGBT, 1922, 

Bt the macmillan company. 



Set up and printed. Published June, 1922. 



Press of 

J. J. Little & Ives Company 

New York, U. S. A. 



JUN 28 1922 

©CI.A677324 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTEK PAGI 

Introductory Note vii 

I The Theater of Invasion 1 

II What the War Did 22 

III The Beginnings of Reconstruction . . 39 

IV The Policy of Reparation 59 

V The Organization of Reconstruction . . 78 

VI The Restoration of Transport .... 101 

VII The Reconstruction of Industry . . . 122 

VIII The Restoration of the Mines .... 141 

IX The Revival of Agriculture 153 

X The Problem of Finance 172 

XI The Government and Its Critics . . . 188 

XII The Work of the Cooperative Societies . 206 

XIII Monuments and Public Buildings . . . 223 

XIV International Aspects of Reconstruction 237 

XV Community Interests and Town Planning 257 

XVI The Contribution of Philanthropy and 

Sympathy 275 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTEK TAGZ 

XVII Conclusions . . . . . . . . . .292 

Appendix 299 

A Town Planning Law, March 14, 1919 299 
B Law of War Damages, April 17, 1919 306 
C Law of the Cooperative Reconstruc- 
tion Societies, August 15, 1920 . . 332 
D Figures of Population 338 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

It has seemed to me that the time was opportune for 
a comprehensive survey of the unparalleled work 
which France has undertaken in the restoration of its 
invaded departments. This book is an attempt at 
such a survey. 

In addition to the numerous ofificials and others who, 
in the course of my repeated visits to the invaded de- 
partments both during and since the war, have aided 
me with information and advice, I have to acknowledge 
special indebtedness to M. Maurice Cazenave, Director 
of the French High Commission in the United States; 
M. Henri Prangey, Chef de Cabinet in the Loucheur 
Ministry of the Liberated Regions; M. Verdier of the 
Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts; M. 
Reynald and the Marquis de Lubersac, senators; M. 
Stouvenot, Director of Mines at Douai; M. Conem, 
Mayor of Armentieres; the Baron de la Grange; M. 
Tardieu, former Minister of the Liberated Regions; 
M. Louis Champy, Director-General of the Compagnie 
des Mines d'Anzin ; M. C. Javary, Chef d'Exploitation 
of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Nord; the 
Secretary of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de 
I'Est; M. L. Rouquairol of Paris; Professor G. La 
Flize of the Lycee Henri IV; M. G. Marret of the Co- 
operative Reconstruction Society at Reims; the late 

vii 



viii INTRODUCTORY NOTE 

John Kendrick Bangs of the American Committee for 
Devastated France; the American Chamber of Com- 
merce of Paris, and the New York Public Library. 

William MacDonald. 
Paris, January, 1922. 



RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 




3" Longitude East 4" 



Officially declared 
Liberated Regions 




RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

CHAPTER I 

THE THEATER OF INVASION 

An order of the Minister of the Liberated Regions 
issued on August 12, 1919, defined the limits of the 
devastated area of France as including: 

1. All the territory invaded and temporarily occupied in 
force by the enemy for a period long enough to give it over 
to pillage and destruction, from the first advance of the 
Germans in 1914 to their last offensive in 1918. 

2. The regions close to the front which had to be evacu- 
ated by the civil population under the pressure of war, and 
in which enemy bombardment, defensive measures, and con- 
ditions due to military operations resulted in the destruction 
of real or personal property or in other losses of any kind. 

3. The regions adjoining those just mentioned which, 
without having been invaded or evacuated, nevertheless 
suffered in a general way from the operations of the war. 

Laid down on the map, the invaded area thus de- 
fined comprises all the territory of France east or north 
of a line which, beginning with the coast line of the 
departments of the Nord, the Pas-de-Calais, and the 
Somme, follows thence the southern boundary of the 
Somme, the western and southern boundaries of the 
department of the Oise and of the arrondissements of 



2 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Meaux, Coulommiers, and Provins in the department 
of Seine-et-Marne, the southern boundary of the de- 
partment of the Marne and the communes of Semoine, 
Mailly-le-Camp, and Poivres in the department of the 
Aube, the southern boundary of the department of the 
Meuse, the southern and western boundaries of the 
department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, the southern and 
western boundaries of the arrondissements of Epinal 
and Remiremont in the department of the Vosges, and 
the southern and western boundaries of the territory 
of Belfort to the Swiss border. 

The area included within the terms of the official 
definition, embracing twelve departments in whole or 
in part and the territory of Belfort, is considerably 
greater than the actual area of German occupation. 
To the west, the extreme limit of the German advance 
in 1918 extended only a short distance west of the 
narrow "peninsula of Armentieres" which connects the 
two parts of the department of the Nord, and em- 
braced about one-fourth of the department of the Pas- 
de-Calais and less than half of the department of the 
Somme. In the first German advance, in 1914, less 
than half of the departments of the Oise and Seine-et- 
Marne was occupied, and the department of the Aube 
was barely entered. The southern third and the ex- 
treme northern portion of the department of the 
Meuse escaped German occupation, as did all but the 
northeastern edge of the department of Meurthe-et- 
Moselle and the larger part of the department of the 
Vosges. The departments of the Seine, Seine-et-Oise, 
Seine-et-Loire, Seine-Inferieure, Haute-Saone, Haute- 
Marne, and Doubs, in all of which the government has 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 3 

been called upon to evaluate war damages/ also fall 
outside the invaded area as ofl&cially defined. 

The order of August 12 offers no explanation of this 
discrepancy. What it does is to set apart for the ad- 
ministrative purposes of reconstruction a longer and 
compact area comprising twelve departments in whole 
or in part besides the territory of Belfort, which was 
not only given over as a whole to military occupation, 
either by the Germans or by the French and the Allies, 
but in which also the civil life was more or less com- 
pletely suspended. The larger part of the Nord, the 
Pas-de-Calais, the Somme, and the Oise, for example, 
was in general completely disorganized by the war, 
notwithstanding the fact that scores of communes in 
those departments never saw a German soldier except 
as a prisoner and did not suffer from German guns. If 
confusion is to be avoided, however, the distinction 
between the official invaded area and the area which is 
popularly spoken of as devastated myst constantly be 
kept in mind.^ 

The total area of the liberated regions as defined in 
the ministerial order of August 12 is upwards of 25,000 
square miles, or somewhat less than one-eighth of the 

'See, for example, the Journal Officiel (1918), 1,877, 2,212, 6,223, 
9,119, 10,752; ibid. (1919), 317, 7,028, 7,179, 7,549, 10,925, 11,969. 

' The order of August 12, 1919, was issued for the purpose of defin- 
ing the territorial limits within which the law of April 17, 1919, 
relating to war damages, should be applied. The statement of limits 
in the law of April 17 is vague. A law of August 9, 1920, relating to 
the supply of bread for the country, defined the devastated regions 
as "those which, between January 1, 1915, and November 11, 1918, 
were occupied in a permanent or temporary way by the enemy, or 
which formed part of the fighting zone, or which, being situated in 
the immediate vicinity of the front, were evacuated under the pres- 
sure of war conditions." The Aube department is not generally 
regarded as forming part of the so-called liberated regions. 



4 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

total area of France. The total area which at the 
close of the war required restoration to normal condi- 
tion was 3,337,000 hectares, in English measure 8,245,- 
727 acres or about 12,884 square miles. This latter 
area is somewhat larger than that of Holland, larger 
by nearly fifteen hundred square miles than that of 
Belgium, and a trifle greater than the combined areas 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut. At the date of the 
armistice, November 11, 1918, about one-half of this 
area was in a condition demanding little more than a 
comparatively simple clearing away of military equip- 
ment and debris; the remainder required extensive 
work, while for 116,640 hectares the estimated cost of 
restoration exceeded the value of the land. 

The invasion of France in 1914-1918 differed radi- 
cally in character and results from that which at- 
tended the Franco- Prussian war of 1870-1871. In 
1870-1871 the German armies, entering France from 
the east and northeast, encountered no serious obstacle 
except at Metz, and moved rapidly across the country 
to the siege of Paris. The fighting was of short dura- 
tion, there was no general evacuation of the civil popu- 
lation, the destruction of public and private property 
of various kinds was small, and there was no serious 
injury to the soil, to means of transport, or to industry. 
In 1914-1918, on the other hand, the battle front 
traversed practically the entire breadth of northern 
France from the Channel to the Swiss border, ad- 
vancing and receding over larger areas as one side or 
the other gained or lost; a considerable part of the 
invaded area was for more than four years in German 
hands, at the same time that the remainder was the 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 5 

scene of military operations on an unprecedented scale 
by tlae French and the Allies; far the larger part of the 
civil population was either held within the German 
lines or evacuated to other parts of France; while to 
the inevitable losses of war was added a colossal weight 
of pillage and destruction deliberately aimed at the 
devastation of the country and the prostration of in- 
dustry. Not since modern history began has Europe 
seen such widespread and comprehensive desolation as 
a result of war. The only comparable illustrations, and 
those on a small scale, are the ravages of the Thirty 
Years' war in Germany and the destruction which 
attended Sherman's march to the sea in the American 
Civil War. 

Certain physiographical characteristics of the in- 
vaded departments, which determined to a consider- 
able extent the course of the German invasion and the 
Allied defense, affected also the extent and character 
of the devastation wrought. The prompt action of the 
French in taking the offensive at the beginning of the 
war for the recovery of Alsace closed the Bourgogne 
gateway between the Vosges and the Jura mountains 
which gives access from the Rhine to the valleys of the 
Saone, the Meurthe, and the Moselle, at the same time 
that the close proximity of Switzerland rendered diffi- 
cult a large German military operation in that quarter. 
The German advance, accordingly, at its greatest ex- 
tension in 1918, penetrated only a little way beyond 
the eastern border of FVance and failed to reach the 
important cities of Luneville and Nancy. On the 
other hand, the physical difficulties presented by the 
relatively high altitude and heavy forests of the Vosges 



6 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

mountains impeded direct access to France at that 
point, and in consequence saved the forests themselves 
as a whole from serious injury. Only at a few points 
hotly contested were the trees shot to pieces as was so 
generally the case in the Argonne. Wherever the 
barrier which protected the valley of the Meuse could 
be penetrated, however, as at Pont-a-Mousson and 
thence to St. Mihiel, a succession of ruined towns 
and devastated country marked the progress of the 
conflict. 

The strategic position of Verdun, at the center of 
the long range of hills and valleys known collectively 
as the Hauts-de-Meuse, marked that city and its de- 
fenses as a point about which was to be waged one of 
the most stubborn and bitter struggles of the war. 
The position of the German line, which in 1914 swept 
around Verdun on the east, the north, and the west 
like an inverted U, with the Meuse occupying the 
center, naturally meant the devastation of the narrow 
intervening area. Nowhere in France is there now to 
be seen a more vivid combination of rugged country 
dotted with the remains of forts and artillery emplace- 
ments, of soil torn by trenches, shell holes, and mine 
craters, and of forests shattered by shell fire and cities 
and villages in ruins. From whatever quarter one 
approaches Verdun, the ravages of war stand out on 
every hand. 

A line drawn from Troyes, in the department of the 
Aube, northward through Reims to Valenciennes, 
marks roughly the division between the hilly wooded 
country of eastern France and the rolling hills and 
broad plains of the west. The Haute-Marne plateau 
west of the Vosges is connected with the broken region 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 7 

of the Ardennes by the rough and wooded Argonne, 
and both the Argonne and the Ardennes saw some of 
the hardest fighting of the war. 

Further north the physical configuration of the 
country offered no obstacles to invasion from the Bel- 
gian side, and it was through this wide northern gate- 
way that the German armies poured in the greatest 
numbers and the most powerful streams into the Aisne, 
the Somme, the Oise, and the Marne. By September, 
1914, the German advance had reached Meaux, thirty 
miles from Paris, and extended eastward from Meaux 
toward Chalons-sur-Marne and the Argonne and west- 
ward toward Senlis and Beauvais. The battle of the 
Marne, which forced the entire German line back be- 
yond the river, was followed by a series of operations 
which turned the whole region west of the Argonne 
and south of the Belgian frontier as far as Arras and 
Amiens, and thence south to Compiegne and Chateau- 
Thierry, into one vast battlefield, at the same time 
that the resistance at Verdun was being maintained. 

The Marne battle was followed in 1915 by the battle 
of Champagne, in the region immediately west of the 
Argonne and north of Chalons-sur-Marne. The battle 
of the Somme, east of Amiens, in 1916 was followed 
in 1917 by the battle of the Aisne in the region north 
of Chateau-Thierry. In 1918 the German front, which 
in consequence of these various operations had been 
pushed back beyond the river Aisne, regained for a 
time a large part of what had been lost, only to be 
checked in its advance and pressed steadily backward 
again until the armistice of November brought a sus- 
pension of hostilities. 

The first months of the war witnessed also the Ger- 



8 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

man occupation of more than half of the department of 
the Nord and a considerable portion of the Pas-de- 
Calais. The region of which Arras was the center saw 
the three Artois battles of 1916, and was again the 
scene of hard fighting the following year. The German 
front, which in 1915 ran south from Ypres through 
Armentieres and La Bassee to Arras, reached in 1918 
almost to Hazebrouck, and the Armentieres peninsula 
remained a "red zone" throughout the war. 

It is in the broad area west of the Haute-Marne, the 
Argonne, the Ardemies, and the Belgian border, and 
north of Meaux and the Marne to Armentieres, that 
the destruction wrought by the war is still to be seen 
at its greatest extent and in its most appalling dreari- 
ness. The advances and recessions of a battle line 
more than two hundred miles long, the thrusts and 
counter-thrusts of invaders and defenders, the strug- 
gles for the control of rivers, railways, and highways, 
the fierce fighting over strategic positions and the 
stubborn defense of every city or village where a stand 
could be made, were of themselves enough, without the 
added weight of a deliberate destruction, to turn large 
parts of the country into a desert and to leave of civili- 
zation only a memory and a name. If the war made 
familiar to the world the names of Armentieres, Lens, 
Arras, Peronne, St. Quentin, Soissons, Reims, and St. 
Menehould, it is also true that because these communi- 
ties, like hundreds of others of lesser fame, were long 
in the thickest of the fighting they were all but com- 
pletely ruined. Not all of the destruction, of course, 
was the work of the enemy, save as responsibility at- 
taches to the enemy as the aggressor; for what one 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 9 

army did not overrun had often to suffer from the 
operations of the other, and it was as disastrous to a 
town or a farmhouse to dislodge an invader as it was to 
resist an attack. 

The broken and wooded region of northeastern 
France, physiographically a part of the same area to 
which Alsace and Lorraine belong, is often strikingly 
picturesque. The western part of the invaded area, on 
the other hand, while by no means wanting in physio- 
graphical interest, lacks picturesqueness. It is a region 
of broad valleys only slightly elevated above the sea, 
separated by long rolling hills over which the plain 
sweeps easily in a succession of low waves. In the 
Nord and the Pas-de-Calais, where the hills flatten 
out, the broad expanses of level country bear a striking 
resemblance to the grain areas of the United States 
and western Canada. The river basin of the Seine, 
which includes those of the Marne, the Gise, and the 
Aisne, comprises more than 30,000 square miles of 
territory, and is the most important network of navi- 
gable rivers in France. An extensive system of canals, 
connecting and in some cases paralleling the rivers, 
gives access from the sea to practically the whole 
interior. 

The total population of the departments included in 
the ministerial order of August 12, 1919, was in 1911 
about 7,000,000, or more than one-seventh of the total 
population of France. The , estimated population in 
1914 of the region actually invaded or devastated was 
4,690,183, or about one-eighth of the total population 
of France in 1911 and three-fifths of the total popula- 
tion of the invaded departments. With the exception 



10 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

of Nancy, which had in 1911 a population of 119,949, 
and Reims, whose population at the same date num- 
bered 115,178, the largest centers of population were 
to be found in the industrial and mining regions of the 
north and west, where Lille, the largest city in the 
invaded area, had 217,807, the neighboring cities of 
Roubaix and Tourcoing 122,723 and 82,644 respec- 
tively, Valenciennes 34,766, Douai 36,314, Armentieres 
28,625, Lens. 31,812, Arras 20,080, and Amiens 93,207. 
Three large maritime cities — Calais with 72,322 in- 
habitants, Dunkerque with 38,891, and Boulogne-sur- 
Mer with 53,128 — lie outside the zone of land opera- 
tions. Elsewhere the cities were small. With the 
exception of Reims, the only cities whose population 
exceeded 20,000 in 1911 were St. Quentin with 55,571, 
Chalons-sur-Mame with 31,367, Maubeuge with 23,- 
209, Charleville with 22,654, Epernay with 21,811, and 
Verdun with 21,701. Of the 3,524 communes occupied 
.by the Germans, 95 per cent, were communities of a 
few hundred or one or two thousand inhabitants each. 
Everywhere, even in the industrial and mining centers, 
the population was overwhelmingly French in origin, 
speech^ and allegiance. 

The predominant industry of the invaded depart- 
ments was agriculture. Of the 3,337,000 hectares in 
the devastated zone, 2,164,727 hectares were under 
cultivation in 1914 and 406,330 hectares were in pas- 
turage. Even in the immediate vicinity of the indus- 
trial or mining towns the arable land was put to use, 
and the fertile valleys of the eastern departments were 
everyivhere in crops or in pasturage. The coal region 
of the north has been likened to a great city whose 
quarters were separated by well-cultivated fields. 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 11 

This agricultural development was a natural conse- 
quence of physiographical conditions. Throughout the 
plain and rolling country of the center, the north, and 
the west the soil is generally fertile and the climate 
moist and moderately warm. Most of the grains of the 
temperate zone — wheat, barley, rye, oats, etc. — thrive 
throughout the region, and northwestern France in 
particular was a granary which skillful and intensive 
cultivation had developed to the utmost. Before the 
war France was second only to Russia among Euro- 
pean countries in the production of wheat, nearly one- 
half of the cereal acreage being devoted to that crop, 
while of the remaining acreage about one-half was 
devoted to oats. To the production of grain was also 
added a considerable production of hay, flax, hemp, 
and hops. In the Nord, the Pas-de-Calais, the Somme, 
the Oise, and the Aisne the production of sugar beets 
was an industry of prime importance, and the wines 
of Champagne had an established reputation. The 
development of market gardening, on the other hand, 
in spite of the presence of industrial cities and the 
proximity of Paris, had not attained large dimensions, 
and fruit growing for market was mainly confined to 
the northwest. 

It should be remembered, however, that large scale 
farming is not the predominant characteristic of 
French agriculture. Even in the grain-growing regions 
of the Nord, where the wheat fields extend for miles 
on either hand, farms of more than fifty hectares are 
rare and farms of ten hectares or less are the rule. It 
is this system of small farms, cultivated in the great 
majority of cases by their owners and subject to fur- 
ther and repeated subdivisions under the operation of 



12 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the French law of inheritance, which predominates 
throughout the invaded area. With such a system the 
production of staples in large quantities by individual 
proprietors is impossible, hand labor holds its own 
against elaborate and expensive machinery, crop areas 
are small even to diminutiveness, and the farm tends 
to become and to remain a little self-supporting unit 
upon which the larger part of what is produced is con- 
sumed. The variety of products is considerable, but 
the quantity of each product is small and compara- 
tively little is raised primarily for sale. 

It is this predominance of small farms with intensive 
cultivation and a varied production which explains in 
large part the peculiar attachment of the French peas- 
ant and small proprietor to his land, the deep sense of 
loss which is felt when buildings, orchards, or fields are 
injured even as a result of war, and the ineradicable 
desire to return even when everything above ground 
has been destroyed and the soil itself for the time being 
put out of use. It was less because the farm was, in 
any ordinary financial sense, a business or a source of 
profit than because it was his home, the home of his 
ancestors and the property which he would leave to his 
children, that the farmer whom the war drove out 
refused in most cases even to think of beginning life 
again elsewhere, and set himself resolutely to make 
good, with government aid or without it, the loss which 
he had sustained. There is no understanding of the 
problem of reconstruction in France unless one takes 
into account at the outset the invincible attachment 
of the farmer to his land. 

Approximately one-eighth of the devastated area 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 13 

was in forests, including in this classification the wood- 
land privately owned as well as the forests owned and 
cultivated by the state or by local communities. Of 
the latter, those of Compiegne, St. Gobain, west of 
Laon, and Reims, between that city and Epernay, were 
the most important in the south, and those of the 
Argonne and the Vosges in the east. The region south 
of Soissons, between Villers-Cotterets, Chateau- 
Thierry, and Epernay — between the German fronts of 
1915 and 1917 to the north and the extreme limit of the 
German advance of 1918 to the south — is also exten- 
sively wooded. The northern and western regions, on 
the other hand, possess few forests of special conse- 
quence except those of the Avesnes area, in the extreme 
eastern portion of the department of the Nord. 

The developed mineral wealth of devastated France 
consisted principally of coal and iron. The coal basin 
of the north, in the department of the Nord and the 
Pas-de-Calais, extends from Valenciennes westward to 
Denain, Douai, Lens, and Bethune. Of the various 
concessions under which the mines are worked that of 
Anzin, near Valenciennes, is the largest. About 55 per 
cent, of the total annual coal production of France was 
furnished by the invaded departments. The iron de- 
posits are in the east. Before the loss of Lorraine, in 
1871, the mines of the then department of the Moselle 
occupied the first place in the production of iron ore; 
and in spite of the territorial losses which were sus- 
tained, the present department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, 
representing what was left to France of the former 
departments of the Meurthe and the Moselle, fur- 
nished before the war more than nine-tenths of the 



14 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

total ore production of France, and is in fact one of 
the chief ore-producing regions of the world. The 
production of roofing slates, mainly in the Ardennes, 
was surpassed in value only by that of Great Britain. 

In 1914 there were, in the devastated zone, 20,539 
industrial establishments of all kinds. About 70 per 
cent, of the plants were to be found in the Nord, the 
Pas-de-Calais, and the Somme, 10 per cent, in the 
Aisne, and somewhat less than 10 per cent, in the 
Ardennes, the Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, and the 
Vosges. Besides coal and iron ore, the zone is esti- 
mated to have produced before the war 94 per cent, of 
the total annual production in France 'of woolen goods, 
90 per cent, of the linen thread, 80 per cent, of the pig 
iron, 70 per cent, of the sugar, and 60 per cent, of the 
cotton goods. It also generated 45 per cent, of the 
electric power.^ Included in the varied list of manu- 
factures which had attained substantial development 
were hats, paper, pipes, biscuits, furniture, cement, 
bricks, tiles, pottery, glass, and chemicals. The Nord 
had also an important brewing industry. 

The transport needs of the region were met by a 
network of railways, canals, and highways. The main 
lines of railway, grouped chiefly in two systems, those 
of the Nord and the Est companies, and radiating from 
Paris to the frontiers of Belgium, Luxembourg, and 
Germany, were supplemented not only by branch lines 
and by numerous short lines of private companies but 
also by hundreds of kilometres of local narrow-gauge 
lines. All of the larger cities had electric-tramway 
systems and suburban and interurban service was 

* A. Tardieu, The Truth about the Treaty, 378. 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 15 

growing. The extent of the transport system may be 
gathered from the fact that 2,404 kilometres of railway 
main lines and branches, 906 kilometres of local lines, 
1^036 kilometres of navigable waterways, and 52,734 
kilometres of highways were in need of reconstruction 
or repair at the close of the war.^ 

The briefest survey of the departments upon which 
in August, 1914, the great war descended in all its 
frightfulness would be incomplete if it failed to take 
note of the wealth of historical and artistic interest 
which the region held. The ancient province of Cham- 
pagne, united finally to the kingdom of France in 1361, 
was in general coextensive with the present depart- 
ments of the Marne, Haute-Marne, and Aube, the 
eastern part of the Seine-et-Marne, and various small 
portions of the Meuse and the Aisne. By 1789 it had 

'Numerous estimates of the injury done to the devastated depart- 
ments have been published. The following data, prepared by "the 
head of one of the great French banks" and published is the circular 
of the National City Bank of New York for August^ 1920, may be 
compared with the figures given in this chapter. According to this 
authority the invaded part of France paid in WIS a revenue of 
800,000,000 francs, out of a total revenue of 5,100,000,000 francs col- 
lected by the government. The same territory also ^presented 14 
per cent, of the total French production of wheat, 47 per cent, of 
the sugar, 55 per cent, of the flax, 74 per cent, of the coal, 92 per 
cent, of the iron ore, 81 per cent, of the iron, 60 per cent, of the steel, 
20 per cent, of the tools, machinery, etc., 80 per cent, of the woolen 
products, 70 per cent, of the cotton products, and 20 per cent, ef the 
export trade. The considerable differences, often irreconcilable, be- 
tween these various estimates may perhaps be explained by the faot 
that the figures for the same year are not necessarily those of the 
same date within the year, or by the habit of making exhibits in 
round numbers rather than in exact figures, or by the mixing of 
official and unofficial estimates, or by basing the calculation at one 
time upon the entire area under the jurisdiction of the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions and at another time upon the smaller 
area actually invaded. Even the official estimates, including those 
apparently based upon detailed enumeration, show a good many 
variations in detail which cannot easily be explained. 



16 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

come to include also the department of the Ardennes. 
Conquered by the Romans, traces of whose occupation 
survived at Reims, Laon, and elsewhere, and Christian- 
ized in the latter half of the third century, it suffered 
from the invasions of the Vandals and the Huns, and 
upon the withdrawal of the Roman authority came 
under the rule of Clovis, the chief of the Franks, who 
embraced Christianity and was baptized at Reims in 
496. Numerous partitions of the province, attended 
with frequent wars, followed. In 814 Louis "the 
Debonnaire" was crowned at Reims ; Charles the Sim- 
ple was made prisoner at St. Quentin and imprisoned 
at Chateau-Thierry and later at Peronne, where he died 
in 929. Reims, one of the most prosperous cities of 
Roman Gaul, was also from the time of the Capetians 
the place at which all but two of the early kings of 
France were crowned. The emancipation of the com- 
munes of Champagne from feudal control began at the 
end of the twelfth century, the charter of Beauraent- 
en-Argonne, granted by the archbishop of Reims, serv- 
ing as a model. 

The Hundred Years' war between England and 
France (1327-1453) was disastrous for Champagne. 
English troops under the Prince of Wales ravaged the 
country from Epernay to Vitry and Chalons-sur- 
Mame in 1368, and the attacks were repeated in 1370 
and 1373. Meaux was sacked by the English, after an 
heroic defense, in 1421. The tide turned in 1429 when 
Jeanne d'Arc, a native of Champagne, having inspired 
the French to free Orleans, led Charles VII to Reims, 
where he was consecrated. The peace of 1453, which 
ended a struggle in which the English lost all the terri- 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 17 

tory claimed by them in France except Calais, was 
followed by ninety years of much needed quiet. Then, 
in 1544, in the war between Francis I of France and 
Charles V of Spain, Vitry was burned by the Spanish 
forces, Epernay taken, and Chateau-Thierry pillaged. 
Peace was concluded the same year at Crepy, near 
Laon, and a new Vitry-le-FranQois was built by the 
king to replace the Vitry which had been destroyed. 
The country was again ravaged in the religious wars 
of the sixteenth century. 

There is hardly an important city in the whole 
invaded area whose origin, like that of the cities of 
Champagne, does not lie far back in the centuries in 
which what ultimately became the kingdom of France 
was being formed, while more than one had witnessed 
the struggles of the Napoleonic wars or the entrance 
of German troops in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870- 
1871. Soissons, which became in 511 the capital of the 
kingdom of Neustria and "the cradle of the Frankish 
monarchy," was bombarded by the Germans for four 
days in 1870 before it surrendered. Laon, an ancient 
Roman city and later the seat of the last Carolingian 
kings, was held by the English from 1410 to 1429, and 
blew up its powder magazine in the citadel when the 
Germans entered in 1870. Reims was an ecclesiastical 
as well as a political center, no less than four church 
councils, those of 1049, 1119, 1131, and 1148, having 
assembled there. At Verdun, another Roman city, 
was concluded the agreement or treaty of 843 by which 
Charles the Great divided his empire between his three 
sons, Lothaire, Louis, and Charles. In the treaty of 
Westphalia., in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' 



18 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

war, Austria renounced in favor of France its claim to 
the three ancient bishoprics of Verdun, Toul, and 
Metz. Verdun was bombarded by the Germans in 
1870 and surrendered only with the honors of war. 
Metz was besieged and taken by the Germans in 1870 a 
few weeks after the surrender of Napoleon III at 
Sedan. By the peace of Luneville, in 1801, between 
France, Germany, and Austria, the boundary of France 
was extended to the Rhine, where it remained until 
the Franco-Prussian war gave Alsace and Lorraine, in- 
cluding Metz, to Germany. 

Of equal interest historically are the cities of the 
Oise, the Somme, the Pas-de-Calais, and the Nord. 
Compiegne, long a favorite residence of the French 
kings, was also the place at which Jeanne d'Arc, in 
1430, was made prisoner by the Bourgondians, who 
turned her over to the English. Noyon was a Roman 
city, later the scene of the consecration of Charles the 
Great in 768 and of the election of Hugh Capet in 987. 
The history of St. Quentin goes back to the latter part 
of the first century. It was occupied by the Spanish 
in 1557, and was the scene of an important French 
defeat in 1871. The latter year witnessed also the 
defeat of a French army at Bapaume. Lille, the 
ancient capital of French Flanders, was ceded to 
France definitely by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, 
after having been besieged and taken by Louis XIV in 
1667 and retaken by the armies of Prince Eugene of 
Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough in 1708. Valen- 
ciennes, whose beginnings tradition ascribes to the 
Roman emperor Valentinian, was taken by Louis XIV 
in 1677, and suffered bombardment and capture by the 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 19 

allied British and Prussians in 1815. Amiens, a Gaul- 
ish city which Caesar reduced to subjection and later 
the capital of the ancient province of Picardy, was 
occupied at different periods by the Normans, the 
Spanish, the English, and the French before Henry IV 
of France, in 1597, incorporated it finally in his king- 
dom. In 1802, by the peace of Amiens, England 
ceased for the time being its war with revolutionary 
France and Bonaparte, and recognized the territorial 
changes that had been made. 

An experience similar to that of Amiens character- 
ized the history of Arras, capital of the ancient prov- 
ince of Artois, which was claimed in turn by the Dukes 
of Burgundy, the Counts of Flanders, the Holy Roman 
Empire, and Spain before passing finally to France in 
1640. Two international agreements perpetuate the 
name of Cambrai: that of 1508, in which the Emperor 
Maximilian, Louis XII of France, Ferdinand the 
Catholic of Spain, and Pope Julius II formed a league 
against Venice, and the so-called Ladies' Peace of 1529 
between the Emperor Charles V and Francis I of 
France. 

To richness of historical association is also to be 
added, although in less abundant measure, richness of 
artistic interest. The cathedrals of Arras, Amiens, 
Soissons, Cambrai, Noyon, Reims, and Laon, the pal- 
ace or chateau at Compiegne, the city halls at St. 
Quentin, Compiegne, Soissons, Reims, and Valen- 
ciennes, and numerous parish churches and public 
buildings were architectural monuments representative 
alike of the history, the art, and the spirit of northern 
France. Numerous museums and libraries housed 



20 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

valuable collections of paintings, sculpture, furniture, 
manuscripts, and early printed books. Couey-le- 
Chateau, still picturesque in spite of the added ruin 
which the war imposed upon it, was one of the most 
notable feudal monuments in western Europe. The 
artistic significance of domestic architecture also, par- 
ticularly in the older cities, often preserving in fagade 
or portal or roof the characteristics of a period or a 
school, is not to be overlooked. 

A brief reference should perhaps be made to the 
political organization of France, since the administra- 
tive system whose operations must often be discussed 
in the pages which follow differs very much from that 
which obtains in either England or the United States. 
Each department is divided into arrondissements, the 
arrondissement into cantons, and the canton into com- 
munes. The chief adminis-trative official of the de- 
partment is the prefect (prejet), appointed from Paris 
and subject to removal or transfer at the discretion of 
the President of the Republic, who acts through the 
Minister of the Interior. With the prefect is associ- 
ated a council (conseil de prefecture) , and a sub-pre- 
fect (sous-prefet) , for each arrondissement or sub- 
prefecture (sous-prefecture). The administration of 
the commune, subject to the prefect, is vested in a 
municipal council (conseil municipal), which chooses 
one of its number as mayor (maire). There is also in 
each department a general council (conseil general), 
with as many members ^s there are cantons in the 
department, and in each arrondissement a conseil 
d' arrondissement, with as many members as there are 
cantons in the arrondissement. Each department is 



THE THEATER OF INVASION 21 

represented in the Senate by a number of senators, and 
in the Chamber of Deputies by a number of deputies, 
apportioned in each case according to population. In 
comparison with the United States or England the 
administration is highly centralized, and there is in 
practice little local independence, virtually every 
action of the commune, the canton, or the arrondisse- 
ment requiring the approval of the prefect, who is 
himself minutely controlled from Paris. 

Such was the region, rich in history and tradition 
and in agricultural, industrial, and commercial devel- 
opment, upon which the great war fell like a bolt from 
a clear sky. 



CHAPTER II 

WHAT THE WAR DID 

For more than four years and three months, from 
August, 1914, to November, 1918, the present dev- 
astated zone of France underwent the experience of 
war. No considerable part of the zone, including the 
territory within twenty or thirty miles of the German 
front, was long free during that entire period from 
active military operations. Far the larger part of the 
zone, moreover, was continuously occupied by the 
Germans from the beginning of the war until the 
armistice; and while long-continued enemy occupation 
of an invaded region does not of itself necessarily 
mean undue injury to private or public property, it 
makes possible, once a regime of destruction is entered 
upon, a more systematic and general devastation than 
would be likely otherwise to take place. A very large 
part of the injury which the invaded departments suf- 
fered was of a comprehensive and systematic charac- 
ter, carefully planned and thoroughly executed. Much 
of the injury which was caused by the Germans served 
no proper military purpose and was the result of no 
military necessity, but aimed rather to break the 
morale of the French and cripple the country for years 
to come. Some of it was wanton, the work of lawless- 
ness in uniform. Some portion, doubtless, was acci- 

22 



WHAT THE WAR DID 23 

dental. The rest was the inevitable result of war. 
Morally and sentimentally these various categories can 
be discriminated, and they must be so discriminated 
where questions of responsibility are involved. For 
purposes of reconstruction, on the other hand, they all 
stand upon the same plane. 

The casual traveler who flits across the devastated 
area in an automobile or a railway train is likely to 
receive a vivid but conglomerate impression of ruined 
houses and churches, fields scarred by trenches and 
shell holes, treetops shot to pieces, heaps of barbed 
wire or other debris cumbering the ground, abandoned 
locomotives and railway cars, lines of rusty railway 
track overgrown with grass and weeds, and innumera- 
ble temporary houses and barraques. The impression 
is accurate enough and is certainly one not soon to be 
forgotten, but it nevertheless gives hardly more than a 
superficial idea of the character and extent of the in- 
jury which the war entailed, or of the novelty and 
complexity of the problems which the rehabilitation of 
the devastated zone presented. Not only is it true 
that no modern war has been attended by such general 
and thoroughgoing destruction of property, but it is 
also true that in no war has the task of restoration 
been so vast, so difficult, and so involved. 

Down to the time of the armistice, in November, 
1918, 3,524 communes had been occupied by the 
enemy, and 805 communes not actually occupied had 
been evacuated by the civil population on account of 
the war.^ Of this number 1,039 were completely de- 

*The statistics in this and the following chapters, unless otherwise 
noted, are those prepared by the Ministry of the Liberated Regions. 



24 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

stroyed, 1,235 were more than 50 per cent, injured, and 
the larger part of the remainder were injured to a 
greater or less extent. In the 4,329 communes occu- 
pied or evacuated, 293,039 dwellings were destroyed 
and 435,961 seriously injured. The number of public 
buildings — town halls, schools, churches, etc. — de- 
stroyed was 6,147^ while the number which suffered 
serious injury was 10,731. In 3,256 communes the 
municipal life was suspended, either completely as a 
result of the destruction of the commune and the 
evacuation of its inhabitants, or more or less com- 
pletely in consequence of military occupation. 

The injury to buildings took every conceivable form. 
Of some small communes it was almost literally true 
that not one stone was left upon another, and cases 
were not uncommon in which owners who returned 
after the armistice were unable to locate the bound- 
aries of their properties. Guides still point to grass- 
grown areas of rough ground where once stood a village 
of which not a stone is now visible, and the Vosges, the 
Marne, and the Somme contain villages which exist 
to-day only in the form of stone heaps or jagged frag- 
ments of walls. Of many other buildings only the 
foundations were left, and in many instances even 
foundations were broken down or blown to pieces. 
The buildings which were not leveled to the ground 
presented injuries of the greatest variety. Some re- 
tained only fragments of their walls, the roofs and the 
entire interior construction having been destroyed. 
With some the outer walls were in the main intact, but 
roofs and partition walls were gone. Others still 
boasted a roof, but torn and almost ruined by bom- 



WHAT THE WAR DID 25 

bardment. In some the interior had been burned out, 
leaving only the shell. The collapse of walls and roofs 
often carried with it the floors, and the interior, even 
where fire had destroyed everything combustible, was 
still a tangled mass of stone, brick, mortar, and twisted 
metal. 

There were important or curious exceptions, of 
course. Proportionately, it was usually the smallest 
communes that suffered most. Even with them, how- 
ever, cases were not wanting in which a part only of 
the village was destroyed or in which a few houses, a 
church, or a public building somehow survived the 
wreck. In the larger cities the devastation as a rule 
was less general. Many houses and other buildings in 
Verdun escaped serious injury notwithstanding the 
long siege, and the cathedral, the most conspicuous 
object in the city, escaped demolition while near-by 
property was destroyed. The older part of Laon, pic- 
turesquely located on the top of a high plateau com- 
manding a superb view of the country for miles 
around, bears comparatively few scars of war, and the 
most serious injury to the great cathedral was a large 
hole in the roof. At Lille, destruction was mainly 
confined to a comparatively small area in the heart of 
the city, while at Valenciennes it centered about the 
railway station. The injuries to Amiens were not 
considerable, and extensive areas of Arras remained 
essentially intact in spite of the almost complete 
devastation wrought in other quarters. At Armen- 
tieres neither walls nor roofs were generally destroyed, 
although disfigurement and minor injury were widely 
spread. At Lens, on the other hand, fire and bom- 



26 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

bardment made a clean sweep; no city in the devas- 
tated zone is so fitly to be characterized as the abomi- 
nation of desolation. Of the center of Bethune there 
survives little more than a ruined tower, while at 
Albert scarcely a building of any kind was left in a 
condition to afford shelter to animal or man. 

With the destruction of dwellings and public build- 
ings went also, as a rule, the destruction of' shops, 
mills, factories, mines, and industrial establishments 
of all kinds. The number of industrial establishments 
partially or totally destroyed was about twenty thou- 
sand. Many small industries which for statistical pur- 
poses must be classified as industrial establishments 
were carried on in buildings which also served in part 
as dwellings, but the 8,792 industries which in 1914 
employed more than ten workmen each, and especially 
the 5,297 establishments with more than twenty work- 
ers each, probably represent in most cases separate 
buildings or groups of buildings and include many 
large and expensive plants. The destruction of build- 
ings was only a part, and often only the smaller part, 
of the industrial loss, the remainder including ma- 
chinery, tools, equipment, and appliances of every 
kind, most of which were either entirely destroyed or 
else rendered useless by the destruction of essential 
parts. With the loss of buildings and machinery went 
also, in most cases, heavy losses of raw materials, 
stocks, and finished products. In the case of the mines 
not only were all the machinery and buildings above 
ground, including hoists, ventilating systems, and rail- 
ways, generally crippled or destroyed, but the stop- 
ping or destruction of the pumps allowed the mines to 



WHAT THE WAR DID 27 

fill with water, thereby weakening or destroying the 
interior fittings of pits and passages. The same sweep 
of destruction stopped the supply of electric light and 
power and put an end to the use of gas. Many of the 
larger industrial establishments were fortunately able 
to save their records, but in some the records were 
destroyed along with the buildings. 

The supreme importance of transportation for mili- 
tary purposes saved the railways of the invaded area 
from the complete destruction which was visited upon 
towns, factories, and mines, and even led to the con- 
struction of many miles of new railway for military 
use. Every kilometre of railway in the war zone, on 
the other hand, was worn almost to the point of use- 
lessness as the result of extraordinary traffic and the 
inability to make ordinary repairs, and lines were re- 
peatedly cut and stations, terminals, bridges, and tun- 
nels destroyed or seriously injured as the fortunes of 
war exposed them to attack. The withdrawal of the 
enemy as an advance was checked and lines pushed 
back was often accompanied by a systematic wrecking 
of the railways. Local lines as a rule ceased to operate, 
or were operated only for military purposes. At the 
date of the armistice 2,404 kilometres of railway be- 
longing to the Nord and Est systems were in need of 
more or less complete restoration, and 1,503 stations, 
bridges, tunnels, and structures of various kipds were 
in ruins. Of the local lines, 2,385 kilometres of track 
were unfit for use and 906 buildings, bridges, etc., had 
been destroyed or seriously injured. The loss of rolling 
stock on all lines was very great, and much of the 
equipment that remained at the end of the war was 



28 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

worn beyond the point of safety. For most practical 
purposes the entire railway mileage of the devastated 
zone, when not actually destroyed, required to be re- 
built from the foundation. 

Highways, canals, and navigable rivers also suffered. 
In addition to the blowing up of bridges, which as a 
rule put a stop to transport by water at the same time 
that it interrupted transport by road, the highways 
were torn to pieces by shell fire and mines and worn 
deep with holes and ruts by heavy automobiles, guns, 
and tanks. The highways which required to be re- 
paired or rebuilt aggregated at the date of the armi- 
stice 52,734 kilometres. To this is to be added the 
restoration of 3,220 bridges, culverts, or other struc- 
tures.^ Of the canals and navigable streams, 1,036 
kilometres required to be dredged, or cleared of ob- 
structions such as guns, wagons, fallen bridges, or 
sunken boats, and 1,120 locks, landing places, or other 
structures had to be restored. 

To this destruction or serious impairment of houses, 
public buildings, factories, mines, and transport equip- 
ment is to be added unprecedented injury to the soil 
itself. An enormous mass of defensive works and mili- 
tary equipment cumbered the surface of the devastated 
zone from one end to the other and extended far 
beyond the limits of actual fighting. Hills, valleys, 
plains, and forests were crossed with long lines of 
trenches, barbed wire, and light railways. Hillsides, 
railway embankments, and roadside ditches were 
dotted with caves or huts or gun emplacements, while 

*Such structures are known in French railway nomenclature as 
oh jets d'art. 



WHAT THE WAR DID 29 

hardly a hectare of land could be found that was not 
thickly sprinkled with shell holes. Exploding mines 
and ammunition dumps tore deep rents in the ground 
and scattered rock and subsoil in all directions. Every- 
where the soil was shot full of shells, bombs, and 
grenades, some still protruding through the surface, 
others buried in the ground ready to explode if struck 
by plow or spade. Large areas were to be seen, for 
example, about Verdun or east of Reims and at Vimy, 
in which the whole of the surface soil had been blown 
off by mines and gunfire and the subsoil and under- 
lying rock exposed. Poisonous gases intended to kill 
men also killed vegetation, and the soil was impreg- 
nated with chemicals the nature or duration of whose 
effects upon the various soil products was unknown. 

Throughout the whole area^ moreover, were scat- 
tered vast military camps and prodigious aggregations 
of war material. Houses and barraques of wood, iron, 
stone, brick or concrete, huge hangars for aeroplanes, 
stables for horses and mules, repair shops, ammunition 
dumps, and temporary hospitals dotted the landscape 
from the Vosges to the sea and from the Marne to the 
Belgian frontier. Hospital trains, fleets of canal boats 
converted into hospitals or dressing stations, locomo- 
tives, freight and passenger cars, automobile trucks, 
and wagons of every description were to be measured 
only by the thousand or by the mile. To the numerous 
ammunition depots were to be added great accumula- 
tions of forage and food, barbed wire, lumber and rods 
for concrete construction, the curved and corrugated 
sections of the famous Nissen huts, and portable sec- 
tions of light railway. Everywhere, too, was the 



30 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

wreckage and debris of war — abandoned buildings, 
stranded tanks and guns, ruined or outworn cars and 
locomotives, tangled masses of barbed wire and twisted 
metal, and the desolate graves of the dead. 

The trees suffered with the soil. Some state forests 
had been cut to furnish timber and fuel for the French 
and Allied armies. Naked tree trunks bereft of 
branches testified .to the ravages of artillery fire, and 
numberless trunks had been uprooted. Great num- 
bers of trees had been killed by gas or by shell shock, 
while many more had lost all value as lumber by rea- 
son of shell splinters or bullets imbedded in their 
trunks. The Argonne forest and the broad wooded 
areas of the Armentieres peninsula still look as if some 
gigantic harrow had swept over them, tearing branches 
from the trunks and roots from the soil. Peculiarly 
distressing was the wanton felling of orchards in cer- 
tain areas of German occupation, especially in the 
Somme and the Aisne, and the destruction of shade 
trees which lined the long, straight highways. 

Of the 3,337,000 hectares in the devastated zone, 
2,164,727 hectares were under cultivation in 1914, 
406,330 hectares were in pasturage, and 577,973 hec- 
tares in woodland or forest. Practically every hectare 
had to be carefully gone over, surface incumbrances 
removed, and unexploded metal extracted. There were 
333,000,000 cubic metres of trenches and holes to be 
filled, and 373,000,000 square metres of barbed wire to 
lift and remove. The mass of munitions of all kinds to 
be destroyed reached the enormous aggregate of more 
than 21,000,000 tons. The war had completely de- 
stroyed 29,851 wells, and 91,257 other wells were in 



WHAT THE WAR DID 31 

need of repair. Nowhere in the region could water 
safely be used for drinking or culinary purposes until 
wells had been disinfected and the water analyzed. 

The destruction of houses usually involved the loss 
of the whole or of large parts of the furnishings and 
other contents. Farmers as a rule lost their imple- 
ments and crops, and shopkeepers their stocks. 523,- 
000 oxen and cows, 469,000 sheep and goats, and 367,- 
000 horses, asses, and mules are estimated to have 
been carried away by the Germans down to November 
11, 1918. 

Account must also be taken, in estimating the total 
of material injury caused by the war, of the injury and 
deterioration which were suffered by private and pub- 
lic buildings used by the French or the Allies for mili- 
tary purposes. Large numbers of hotels, private 
houses, country chateaux and other properties were 
commandeered by the army and turned into offices, 
clubs, living quarters, guest houses for visitors, jour- 
nalists, or government officials, canteens, hospitals, and 
the like. In most cases the personal property of the 
owners appears to have been removed before military 
occupancy began, but necessary alterations, extraor- 
dinary wear and tear, and carelessness left most of the 
buildings in need of extensive repairs. The govern- 
ment properly classes all such damages as war dam- 
ages^ the same as if they had been caused by the 
enemy. Buildings occupied by the Germans for simi- 
lar purposes sometimes received a measure of consid- 
eration when towns were destroyed, but as a rule no 
distinction appears to have been made. 

So much for the material losses of the war. How 



32 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

fared it with the people and with the structure of 
government and administration? 

In the more than 3,500 communes which were occu- 
pied by the Germans practically all forms of civil ad- 
ministration were suspended or abolished and military 
rule was substituted. No elections were held, no taxes 
were levied or collected, and military police replaced 
the municipal agents and the gendarmerie. Civil oflBi- 
cials continued to hold a naked legal title in their 
offices, so far as French law and the French govern- 
ment were concerned, even when they were removed 
from office by the Germans, but civil government as a 
whole ceased to function save as the military authority 
from time to time saw fit to use it for administrative 
purposes. Where a commune was destroyed or ren- 
dered uninhabitable even this vestige of civil organiza- 
tion, of course, disappeared. 

A similar condition, so far as the supremacy of 
military control was concerned, was to be found in the 
communes which were occupied by the French or the 
Allies, but with the important difference that there the 
civil government was everywhere respected, and its 
operations were allowed to continue so far as was com- 
patible with the necessities of war. Even where a 
commune was destroyed, the mayor or some other 
official often remained at his post, representing in his 
own person the civil authority of France. The mayor 
was the only civil functionary, and almost the only 
civilian inhabitant, to be found in the ruined commune 
of Clermont-en-Argonne when I visited it in March, 
1917. Throughout the military zone, however, com- 
munication by telegraph, telephone, or post was al- 



WHAT THE WAR DID 33 

lowed only under military censorship, travel from town 
to town was either prohibited altogether or subjected 
to serious restrictions, and no civilian could enter or 
leave the zone without special permission. 

The first advance of the Germans, in 1914, was the 
signal for a wild and disorderly rush of the civil popu- 
lation for safety. Tens of thousands of men, women, 
and children, many of them with only such personal 
belongings as could be carried in their hands or on 
their backs, poured along the roads that led toward 
Paris or crowded the railway trains that would take 
them anywhere. Hastily organized relief societies in 
Paris and elsewhere, aided by the government, worked 
heroically to supply food, shelter, clothing, and medical 
attendance to the confused and helpless refugees. 
When, after the first months of war, the German line 
was pushed back, many of the people returned and 
attempted to reestablish their homes and resume their 
wonted occupations, only to be driven out again when 
the German front once more advanced. Later, thanks 
to the army and the railways, the evacuation of civil- 
ians took on a more orderly character. The larger 
number of the refugees were eventually transported to 
Brittany, Normandy, or central and southern France, 
where they were distributed in quotas roughly propor- 
tioned to the population of the departments and com- 
munes which received them, and where government 
allowances and private charity contributed somewhat 
to their support. A central employment office for the 
placing of unemployed and refugees was opened at 
Paris in November, 1914. Some hundreds of thou- 
sands of civilians, on the other hand, were unable to 



34 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

leave the war zone, and remained virtually prisoners 
within the German lines throughout the war. 

Reference has already been made to the fact that 
the so-called "liberated regions," as officially defined, 
include considerable areas to which the German inva- 
sion did not actually extend but which were neverthe- 
less subjected to disorganization and loss. A compari- 
son of the different departments shows interesting and 
important variations in the burden of injury and dev- 
astation which the war imposed.^ 

The department of the Nord, one of the smallest of 
the invaded departments in area but the leading 
department in population and in the value of its 
industrial and agricultural production, had in 1911 a 
population of 1,961,780. Of this number 758,000 were 
driven out. 501 communes were devastated, 1,555 
schools destroyed, 50,010 houses completely destroyed, 
and 101,292 houses destroyed in part. The total area 
devastated was 500,000 hectares, or about four-fifths 
of the area of the department, 268,808 hectares of this 
amount being arable land. 244,000 head of livestock 
were carried off, 11,814 industrial establishments were 
wholly or partially destroyed, and 7,578 kilometres of 
road torn up. 

The adjacent department of the Pas-de-Calais is 
larger by about one thousand square kilometres than 
the Nord, but had in 1911 less than two- thirds of the 

*The figures which follow, except those of population for 1911, are 
taken from A. Tardieu, The Truth about the Treaty, 378-381. M. 
Tardieu was Minister of the Liberated Regions from November, 1919, 
to January, 1920. Some of the figures appear to be approximate 
round numbers, and the statistics as a whole differ in detail from 
those compiled or revised later by the same ministry, but they are 
nevertheless sufficiently accurate for purposes of comparison. 



WHAT THE WAR DID 35 

population. A little more than one-half of the popula- 
tion, or 581,000, was to be found in the war zone in 
1914, and of this number 460,000 were driven out and 
367 communes were destroyed. The houses completely 
destroyed numbered 70,634, those partially destroyed 
36,480, and schools 554. Other losses included 1,560 
industrial establishments wholly or partially destroyed, 
7,840 kilometres of road in need of rebuilding, and 
124,000 head of livestock carried off. On the other 
hand the devastated area of 267,000 hectares, 138,082 
hectares of which was arable land, comprised less than 
two-fifths of the total area of the department. 

The department of the Somme, which saw much of 
the hardest fighting of the war, shows striking irregu- 
larities in the character and extent of its losses. Of its 
population of 520,161 in 1911, 281,000 were found in 
the war zone in 1914, and of that number all save a 
thousand were driven out. 448 communes and 596 
schools were destroyed, 40,335 houses were completely 
destroyed and 18,766 destroyed in part, and 1,099 in- 
dustrial establishments suffered in whole or in part. 
The livestock carried off numbered 140,000 head, and 
7,144 kilometres of road required to be rebuilt. The 
land area of 400,000 hectares requiring restoration, on 
the other hand, was only about three-fifths of the 
total area of the department, while of the total devas- 
tated surface only 190,700 hectares was arable land. 

Only about two-sevenths of the total area of the 
Oise, or 170,000 hectares, was devastated; of this 107,- 
332 hectares was arable land. On the other hand, while 
less than two-sevenths of the population of 1911, or 
112,398, were to be found in the invaded area in 1914, 



36 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

96,000 of that number were forced to withdraw. The 
record of destruction, complete or partial, included 263 
communes, 260 schools, 24,395 houses, of which 8,745 
were entirely destroyed, 283 industrial establishments, 
and 2,688 kilometres of highway. The loss in cattle 
carried off was 78,000 head. 

So far as the area of devastation is concerned, the 
Aisne came the nearest to complete obliteration. Of 
its 2,868 square miles of area, approximately 2,660 
square miles were devastated, only the extreme south- 
em edge of the department being spared. The wave 
of war destroyed 814 communes, 1,224 schools, 55,268 
houses completely and 50,018 in part, 1,966 industrial 
establishments, and 6,391 kilometres of road. The loss 
in cattle was 251,000 head. More than four-sevenths 
of the devastated land was arable. Of the population 
of approximately 530,000, all in the war zone, 290,000 
were driven out. 

The Marne also lost heavily in population, 223,000 
of the 300,000 inhabitants of the war zone being com- 
pelled to flee. The total population of the department 
in 1911 was 436,310. The toll of losses counted 320 
communes, 432 schools, 49,897 houses, 30,612 of which 
were completely destroyed, 913 industrial establish- 
ments, and 6,184 kilometres of road, besides 116,000 
head of livestock carried away. The total devastated 
area, on the other hand, of 293,000 hectares was only 
a little more than one-third of the total area of the 
department, while of the 293,000 hectares only 136,639 
hectares were arable. 

Similar variations were to be found in the eastern 
departments. The population of the war zone of the 



WHAT THE WAR DID 37 

Ardennes in 1914 was 324,000, a figure slightly in 
excess of the total population of the department in 
1911. Of this number 180,000 were driven out. 443 
communes and 789 schools were destroyed, 10,440 
houses were completely destroyed and 14,205 destroyed 
in partj 1,528 industrial establishments were destroyed 
or injured, and 3,621 kilometres of road required to be 
rebuilt. The invaded area, 525,000 hectares, was al- 
most identical with the area of the department, but 
only 125,000 hectares were arable. Cattle to the num- 
ber of 185,000 head were carried off. 

About two-thirds of the population of the Meuse in 
1911, or 180,000, were in the war zone in 1914, and of 
that number 135,000 had to leave. The property 
losses included 398 communes and 520 schools, 24,229 
houses completely destroyed and 12,457 destroyed in 
part, 93,000 head of livestock carried away, and 4,878 
kilometres of road to be rebuilt. The devastated area, 
320,000 hectares, was almost exactly one-half the area 
of the department, 168,816 hectares being arable. 
Separate figures for industrial establishments are lack- 
ing, but the total for the three departments of the 
Meuse, the Meurthe-et-Moselle, and the Vosges is 
1,376 establishments partially or wholly destroyed. 

Somewhat less than six-sevenths of the population 
of the Meurthe-et-Moselle, or 424,000, were in the war 
zone, and of that number 292,000 were driven out. 
Destroyed communes and schools numbered 363 and 
395 respectively, and to these were to be added 11,796 
houses entirely destroyed, 16,609 houses destroyed in 
part, 4,630 miles of highway requiring reconstruction, 
and 90,000 head of livestock carried off. The depart- 



38 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

ment of the Vosges escaped with the least mjury. Out 
of a population of 433,914 in 1911, of which 82,000 
were in the war zone in 1914, only 18,000 were obliged 
to leave. The 120,000 hectares of devastated area, 
only 4,500 hectares of it arable, represented about one- 
fifth of the total area of the department. The dev- 
astated communes numbered 105, schools 129, houses 
completely destroyed 2,122, houses partially destroyed 
5,663. 39,000 head of livestock had been carried off, 
and 2,445 kilometres of road required to be rebuilt. 

It is difficult even with these figures before us to 
realize how appalling was the destruction or how 
serious was the problem of restoration. The material 
civilization which generations had built up had been, 
in a little more than four years, all but completely 
thrown down. To whom belonged the task of recon- 
struction, and when, where, and how should the work 
begin? It was these questions that the government of 
France, while the war was still only in its beginnings, 
set itself to answer. 



CHAPTER III 

THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 

What has been said in the preceding chapter will 
serve to indicate in a general way the more obvious 
material aspects of the problem with which France has 
had to deal. If the invaded departments were to be- 
come once more habitable and productive, what had 
been demolished must be rebuilt, agricultural, indus- 
trial, and commercial life must be reestablished, the 
refugee population must be brought back, and civil 
government and administration must be resumed. To 
casual observers the problem has often seemed chiefly 
one of quantity : so many hectares of land to be cleared, 
so many kilometres of trenches to be filled, so many 
tons of wire and other debris to be collected and dis- 
posed of, so many houses and factories to be rebuilt. 
It would indeed have been fortunate for France had 
the task been so simple. Once the undertaking was 
fairly begun^ however, its difficulties and complexities 
began to appear. Even the simplest and most obvious 
material processes of the first few months could not be 
carried far without involving financial, administrative, 
and legal questions of a serious and novel chara,cter, 
and the questions multiplied as the area of devastation 
spread and destruction became more systematic and 
thorough. 

39 



40 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The beginning of reconstruction is almost identical 
with the beginning of the war. The formal declara- 
tion of war by Germany was made on August 3, 1914. 
On September 2, following the advice of the military 
authorities, the seat of government was transferred 
from Paris to Bordeaux. Two weeks later the battle 
of the Marne checked the German advance toward 
Paris and gave France a momentary breathing space 
for the long struggle which lay before it. Every other 
consideration was subordinated for the time being to 
the organization of national defense, yet within a few 
weeks the first steps had been taken looking to the 
relief of the departments which had been invaded, and 
consideration of the policy under which reconstruction 
should ultimately proceed was actively begun. There 
is no "period of reconstruction" separate and distinct 
from the period of the war, but war and reconstruction 
went on together so long as the war continued. It is 
the development of the reconstruction policy under 
the stress of war conditions that has now to be traced.^ 

On October 27, 1914, a circular to the prefects - of 
the invaded departments announced that the govern- 

*A striking contrast to the situation in France is afforded by the 
experience of the Confederate States during and after the American 
Civil War (1861-65). In spite of the heavy losses which the Civil 
War entailed and the occupation of important sections of the Con- 
federacy by Federal troops within two years after hostilities began, 
no important efforts were made by any of the States in the direction 
of restoration, and no aid was even extended by the Federal Govern- 
ment even after all the persons who had joined in rebellion against 
the Federal authority had been amnestied and the seceding States 
had again been accorded political rights. The so-called "period of 
reconstruction" after the war was wholly political. 

*The laws, decrees, and official circulars relating to reconstruction 
are usually to be found in chronological order in the Bulletin des 
Lois and the Journal Officiel. Beginning with July 21, 1919, they are 
also to be found in the weekly Bulletin des Regions Liberies, which 
also reprints many of the earlier documents. For 1914-1917 they are 
available in a useful compilation entitled La Legislation de la Guerre. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 41 

merit proposed to aid, by all the means at its disposal, 
the population which was suffering from the war, and 
that the regions not invaded would be called upon for 
help. The Parliament was also to be asked to vote 
credits. In order that the amounts which it would be 
necessary to dispense might be known, the communal 
authorities were requested to send to the prefects as 
detailed reports as possible of the losses sustained, 
these reports to be forwarded by the prefects to the 
Ministry of the Interior. The agents of the various 
ministries concerned, especially engineers of bridges 
and roads, departmental inspectors, and professors of 
agriculture, were directed to assist the prefects in the 
preparation and examination of the reports. A circu- 
lar of October 28, addressed by the Minister of Agri- 
culture to the prefects and supervisors of agricultural 
operations, specified in detail the subjects with which 
the reports should deal. Account was to be taken of 
injuries sustained by the soil and by buildings of all 
kinds, of the loss of crops, forage, and grain, including 
crops not harvested, and losses of personal property. 
As complete and accurate an evaluation of losses as 
possible was to be made, care being taken to guard 
against exaggeration. With the reports, which were to 
be prepared separately for each commune, were also to 
be transmitted suggestions of measures necessary for 
the restoration of agriculture. Weekly reports of prog- 
ress were requested. 

These two circulars were followed on December 26 
by a law announcing that the conditions under which 
the right to war damages ^ might be exercised would 

^In strict legal usage, damages are what is paid in indemnity or 
reparation for losses sustained. The French documents usually em- 
ploy the term in this sense, but occasionally also, as in English and 



42 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

be made the subject of special legal regulation, and in 
the meantime establishing with the Ministry of the 
Interior a preliminary credit of 300,000,000 francs for 
the most urgent needs. On February 4, 1915, commis- 
sions of evaluation were created for departments and 
cantons. The commissions were empowered to open 
inquiries either in the commune which had suffered 
losses or in any other commune in the canton, and to 
determine questions of urgency. The provisions of the 
decree of February 4, with subsequent modifications,, 
were later embodied in a law of April 6. A subsequent 
decree of February 24 provided for a commission to 
allot the funds which had been placed to the credit of 
the Ministry of the Interior. 

The determination of the conditions under which 
war damages should be awarded was referred to a 
special commission, the composition of which was fixed 
by a decree of March 24. The membership was large, 
comprising two senators and three deputies (increased 
in April to five senators and seven deputies), two 
members of the Council of State, two members of the 
Cour des Comptes, two representatives each of the 
ministries of the Interior, Finance, War, Public Works, 
Commerce and Industry, and Agriculture, one repre- 
sentative each of the ministries of Justice, Foreign 
Affairs, and Labor, two architects, two representatives 
of chambers of commerce^ two representatives of agri- 
cultural societies, and four other members. The mem- 
bers of the commission were named by the Minister of 

American popular usage, in the sense of the losses themselves as 
distinct from reparation or indemnity. I have followed the leg^l 
practice wherever the popular usage would, lead to confusion. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 43 

the Interior, who also presided at sessions at which he 
was present. 

On May 27 the commission made its report.^ The 
report pointed out that the only question with which 
the commission could properly concern itself was that 
of the evaluation of damages, the question of the in- 
demnities which should be paid for losses sustained 
being wholly within the jurisdiction of Parliament. In 
the existing state of the law the only damages which 
the commission could consider were such as were (1) 
material or direct, excluding those that were indirect, 
(2) real and actual, excluding those that were conse- 
quential or eventual, or (3) the results of acts of war, 
for example, requisitions. There were two possible 
theories of evaluation : one which took as the basis the 
cost of replacing the property, less an allowance for 
depreciation through age, the other that which took as 
a basis the value of the property at the time of its 
destruction. The commission by a majority vote had 
approved the latter theory as the one most nearly in 
conformity with existing law and the decree of Feb- 
ruary 4. If the amount allowed in damages under this 
rule proved to be less than th^ actual cost of restora- 
tion, relief must be sought in indemnities which it 
would be the function of legislation to provide. 

The period of time to be taken for determining valu- 
ation, the report went on to recommend, should be that 
immediately preceding the war, not the precise date of 
the destruction or injury. The financial authorities of 
the government should determine as nearly as possible 

^The report is in the Journal Officiel for June 21, Supplement, 
4135-4139. 



44 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the value of the property at a date as close as possible 
to the outbreak of the war, using for this purpose any 
relevant data from census returns, public records, the 
records of mortgage or insurance companies, etc. Ac- 
count should also be taken of losses in tools and agri- 
cultural machinery, farm animals, food and forage, 
crops in the ground, vineyards (including the cost of 
replanting and the loss of yield in the meantime), 
trees, gardens, injuries to fields by military operations, 
trenches, and the like, and injuries to private roads. 
Forest damages, also to be included, were in a special 
class, involving as they did questions of the loss of 
trees, injuries, age, market value, cost of restoration, 
buildings of forest occupants, road, etc. Injuries to 
cemeteries were also to be estimated, and enemy requi- 
sitions were to be reckoned as war losses. 

In industry and commerce as well as in agriculture 
account should be taken of the actual value in use of 
the property at the time of injury or destruction, and 
of the value of building in comparison with the value 
of the real property as a whole. In the case of per- 
sonal property the cantonal commissions should re- 
quire the production of detailed lists, supported by 
documentary proof (for example, insurance policies) 
wherever possible, documentary proof being especially 
necessary where the property was of exceptional value 
or where claims for lost money were made. 

The commission further recommended that expert 
valuation be dispensed with, and that lists of persons 
to whom the cantonal commissions might appeal, the 
persons so chosen to serve without pay, be drawn up 
for each department. In the case of commercial or 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 45 

industrial losses the local chambers of commerce 
should be consulted. Detailed recommendations were 
also made regarding the method of evaluating bonds, 
mortgages, and similar securities or evidences of debt. 
Finally, it was urged that the work of the commissions 
be begun at once in places from which the enemy had 
withdrawn. 

Two weeks before the submission of this report, on 
May 11, the government had laid before the Chamber 
of Deputies a proposed law under which the state 
should assume responsibility for the indemnification of 
such war losses as were "material, certain, and direct." 
The place of this proposal in the evolution of the law 
of war damages will be considered later. The report of 
the commission, on the other hand, while in accord 
with the government proposal on the question of re- 
imbursing only direct and material losses, was mainly 
concerned with the question of evaluation, and its 
recommendations constitute the first attempt to deal 
with that subject systematically and as a whole. The 
report is a landmark in the history of reconstruction, 
and the procedure which it outlined formed the basis, 
in the main, of government action until the adoption 
of the great law of April 17, 1919. The decree of 
February 4 was reissued in July in a revised and 
amended form, and was further amplified in August. 

A long period of experiment and divided effort, how- 
ever, was still to elapse. A radical difference of opin- 
ion early developed between the Chamber of Deputies 
and the Senate over the question of war damages, and 
the prolonged debate in the chambers, in the press, 
and in the country naturally affected the attitude of 



46 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the government. The work of aiding and restoring 
the invaded departments was shared by several min- 
isitries, each of which pursued more or less its own 
course. The Ministry of the Interior, cooperating 
with the military authorities, busied itself with return- 
ing refugees to their homes, erecting temporary houses 
or making habitable those least injured, and caring for 
refugees in other parts of France. The Ministry of 
Agriculture helped the people who had returned to 
obtain seed, grain, farm animals, and implements. 
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry also exerted 
itself to provide tools for farmers and mechanics, while 
the Ministry of Labor extended to the invaded com- 
munities the benefit of various social laws and regula- 
tions. Visible progress, however, was small. The re- 
turn of a part of the civil population at this early date 
was as a whole ill-advised, the conditions of existence 
were hard and often wretched, and military events 
undid much of what was actually accomplished. 

The immediate need was for cooperation, and some 
efforts were made to supply it. On April 13, 1916, a 
decree of the Minister of the Interior ^ provided for 
the creation within the ministry of a special service 
charged with the duty of preparing measures looking 
to the construction of temporary houses in the devas- 
tated regions and to the more speedy reconstruction of 
towns, villages, and buildings that had been destroyed, 
and of other plans intended to insure the necessary co- 
operation in these matters between the departments 
concerned. This action was followed on May 18 by a 
government decree establishing an interministerial 

* Journal Officiel, May 6. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 47 

commission to aid in the restoration of the invaded 
regions. In an official statement which accompanied 
the decree two obstacles to rapid reconstruction were 
specially emphasized. One was the fact that the law 
of December 26, 1914, while promising indemnity for 
material or direct losses, failed to meet the immediate 
and pressing needs of sinistres ^ who had not only lost 
houses or other property, but who must also rebuild 
before their former occupation or business could be 
resumed. The other obstacle was the lack of coordi- 
nated effort by the several ministries. The composi- 
tion of the new committee, however, promised little 
improvement in cooperation. Its membership com- 
prised the ministers of Justice, Interior, Finance, War, 
Public Works, Commerce and Industry, Posts and Tel- 
egraphs, Agriculture, and Labor, a Minister of State 
without portfolio, and the Under-Secretary of State for 
Fine Arts. With these were associated the Minister of 
Public Instruction and Fine Arts in questions relating 
to schools, the Minister of the Colonies in questions 
involving the supply of labor or materials by the col- 
onies, the Under-Secretary of State for Artillery and 
Munitions in questions relating to tools and equip- 
ment, and the Under-Secretary of State for the Marine 
in questions relating to the merchant marine. Prac- 
tically, it was the old committee of March 24, 1916, 
shorn of senators, deputies, and non-ofl&cial members. 
For the better transaction of business this inter- 
ministerial committee was divided into six sections, 

'The word itself, of course, is not a war product, but its general 
use as a special designation of those who had suffered property losses 
because of the war seems to have dated from 1914-1915. In the 
absence of a satisfactory English equivalent I use the French term. 



48 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

each presided over by a minister and each intrusted 
with one or more subjects — legal questions, transport, 
mines, buildings, civil reorganization, hygiene, agricul- 
ture, industrial reconstruction, etc. More than seven 
months elapsed, however, without any essential change 
in policy or administrative methods. In February, 
1917, and again in April, the committee was reorgan- 
ized and its duties redistributed, but it gradually be- 
came apparent that the committee, having no agents 
of its own as distinct from the agents of the several 
ministries in the departments for whose benefit it had 
been created, could deal only with general matters and 
not with details. 

On July 28, accordingly, the ministerial members of 
the committee were constituted an executive commis- 
sion, charged with the duty of securing the cooperation 
which thus far had not been realized. The immediate 
outcome of this change appears to have been the crea- 
tion, by a decree of August 10, of an office of industrial 
reconstruction for the invaded districts,^ destined to 
play before long the leading part in the work of res- 
toration. The interministerial committee, however, 
continued to exist. In August it created within itself a 
superior committee for the coordination of public and 
private relief in the war area. That it was still re- 
garded by the government, and also regarded itself, as 
the chief agency for directing the work of reconstruc- 
tion may perhaps be inferred from the issuance, on 
October 8, of a decree reducing its original six sections 
to five and redistributing their powers, one of the new 

*For the list of members see the decree of August 21, in the 

Bulletin des Lois of that date. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 49 

sections having to do with industrial reconstruction, 
and by the issuance on November 12 of a circular 
signed by M. Leon Bourgeois, president of the commit- 
tee, calling the attention of the prefects of the Aisne, 
the Mame, the Meurthe-et-Moselle, the Nord, the 
Gise, the Pas-de-Calais, the Somme, and the Vosges 
to certain decrees of August 10 and November 5 
and advising them of their duties in the matter of 
enforcement. 

In other directions more than formal progress had 
in the meantime been made. On May 15 a prelim- 
inary competition^ open to all French architects, had 
been announced for the choice of such as later would 
be allowed to take part in a final competition for the 
creation of types of peasant houses. The impossibility 
of securing, until some time after the liberation of the 
invaded territories, a strict adherence to the terms laid 
down in the decree of July 20, 1915, for the evaluation 
of war damages, led to the issuance by the Minister of 
the Interior, on May 29,^ of a circular authorizing 
sinistres to proceed at once to a summary ascertain- 
ment of their losses, and to the restoration of their 
property with the aid of such material as they might 
have, without thereby prejudicing their rights before 
the cantonal commissions. A law of July 5 authorized 
the prefects, in case the government representatives 
had failed to inspect property injured or destroyed, to 
make the examinations themselves if called upon or to 
send an expert for the purpose. A circular of July 16, 
issued jointly by the ministers of the Interior, Agricul- 
ture, and Commerce and Industry, further empowered 

^Journal Officiel, June 2. 



50 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the prefects to make advances to sinistres, before the 
evaluation of damages and upon a preliminary survey, 
in order to enable the sinistres to maintain themselves 
temporarily and to use the tools, seed, and other sup- 
plies with which they had been provided. The ad- 
vances, which were to be substantially less than the 
probable damages and in general not more than 3,000 
francs to any one person, were to be charged against 
the credit of 300,000,000 francs authorized in Decem- 
ber, 1914. 

With a view to hastening the reconstitution of the 
soil a special service, attached to the Ministry of War, 
was organized under a decree of August 18 and 
charged with the duty of removing projectiles and 
explosives of all kinds, leveling the battlefields, and 
disposing of other obstacles to cultivation. The per- 
sonnel of the service was to be recruited as far as pos- 
sible from retired soldiers and civil functionaries. 
When work of a military nature had been completed, 
the service was to be transferred to the Ministry of 
Agriculture; on October 9, however, before anything 
of importance had been accomplished, it was trans- 
ferred instead to the Ministry of Public Works and 
Transport. In September the supervision of matters 
relating to habitations and building construction was 
taken from the overburdened Ministry of the Interior 
and given to the Ministry of Public Works and 
Transport, and a special committee was created within 
the latter ministry to study the whole question of con- 
struction, arrange for labor and transport, and advise 
local committees which were to be formed in each 
department. The membership of the special commit- 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 51 

tee comprised, in addition to functionaries, two archi- 
tects and two contractors.^ 

The volume of legislation and executive orders was 
obviously growing apace, but reconstruction lagged. 
Back of the lines the army, aided by German prisoners, 
had performed praiseworthy service in clearing the 
main streets of reoccupied towns and villages, pulling 
down or protecting dangerous ruinSj restoring the main 
highways to passable condition, erecting temporary 
bridges, extracting unexploded shells, and insuring the 
purity of drinking water. Some clearing of private 
property had been begun; gardens had been planted 
and some small crops harvested. Here and there 
schools had been reestablished in barraques, small 
shops had been reopened, and food and lodging of a 
sort could be had. Complaints were loud and long, 
however, that notwithstanding the establishment of 
commissions in many cantons, the evaluation of dam- 
ages was proceeding with distressing slowness or not 
at all, that money was not forthcoming or that gov- 
ernment advances were wholly insufiBcient, and that 
the sinistres were embarrassed at every turn by divided 
authority and conflicting responsibility while the Par- 
liament at Paris debated. 

On October 1, accordingly, a new commission was 
created to study the question of credits. The report 
which accompanied the proposed decree ^ described the 
situation succinctly. However effective the measures 
thus far adopted may have been, "they are not equal 
to bringing about a rebirth of economic activity in the 

'Decrees of September 17 and 25. 
^Journal Officiel, October 4. 



52 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

devastated regions. They extend no aid whatever to 
business men of those regions whose damages are not 
material and direct — the only damages upon which a 
claim to indemnity can be based. On the other hand, 
to the sinistres themselves the indemnity does not 
furnish all the means of action necessary. The manu- 
facturer who would like to rebuild a better arranged 
and more perfectly equipped factory does not find, in 
the indemnity to which he has a claim, the full meas- 
ure of the resources which he needs. In the same way 
the owner will find it impossible to erect more modern 
buildings with better hygienic conditions if means of 
credit are not placed at his disposal. . . . The prob- 
lem of credit presents itself in pressing terms and 
under the most diverse forms: credit to manufactur- 
ers, to merchants, to urban proprietors, to farmers, to 
artisans." 

Four senators and six deputies, in addition to two 
senators and two deputies who acted as vice-presi- 
dents, and forty-four representatives of business and 
of the government made up the commission. 

A further step was taken on the same date by the 
creation of an office of agricultural reconstitution for 
the invaded departments. The administrative council 
of the new office comprised, in addition to government 
officials, representatives of six agricultural organiza- 
tions. On November 13 all the work of agricultural 
reconstruction was turned over to this office. A month 
later,^ however, the Ministry of Blockade and of the 
Liberated Regions was reorganized, and the two offices 
of industrial reconstruction and agricultural recon- 

* Decree of Decembar 13. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 53 

struction were presently attached to it.^ The jurisdic- 
tion of this composite ministry, so far as the liberated 
regions were concerned, embraced the various services 
dealing with the reorganization of local life, war dam- 
ages and accounting, the coordination of public and 
private relief, and the technical services having to do 
with the temporary provision of habitations, the re- 
construction of buildings, and the restoration of the 
soil. Each of these services as already constituted 
remained intact, but the union of blockade and recon- 
struction in the same administrative department did 
not promise hopefully for the recovery of the invaded 
departments so long as the war pressure continued. 

Another year was to pass, however, and hostilities 
were to terminate before reconstruction and blockade 
could be divorced. On February 16 the office of indus- 
trial reconstitution was reorganized, sixteen members, 
eight of whom were representative of commerce and 
industry and at least five of the eight being chosen 
from the invaded departments, having the sole right 
of voting on questions of policy. The multiplication of 
legal and other questions of a controversial nature led 
to the creation within the Ministry of Blockade and of 
the Liberated Regions, on July 14, of a consultative 
committee whose advice could be required by the min- 
ister. Of the twelve members one was a member of 
the Cour des Comptes, two were professors of law, and 
three were lawyers entitled to practice before the 
Cour d'Appel. 

On November 26, the armistice having in the mean- 
time been proclaimed, came the first step in the much- 
* Decree of Jaauary 23, 1918. 



54 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

needed rearrangement of ministerial functions. The 
Ministry of Armaments and War Fabrications was 
transformed into a Ministry of Industrial Reconstruc- 
tion, and the office of industrial reconstruction in the 
Ministry of Blockade and of the Liberated Regions was 
transferred to the new ministry. Three days later the 
services of transport, food control, military relations, 
and the reconstruction of buildings were placed under 
the special charge of a commissariat general in the 
Ministry of Blockade. On December 11 the further 
direction of blockade was transferred to the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Blockade and 
of the Liberated Regions became the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions. It will be observed that the latter 
ministry did not as yet embrace the important subject 
of industrial reconstruction, that field being still the 
special province of the Ministry of Industrial Recon- 
struction, and that railways were still under the juris- 
diction of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport. 
The long period of beginnings and administrative 
experiments was now drawing to its close. On Decem- 
ber 12 the prefects were authorized to requisition 
building material from buildings wholly or partially 
destroyed, provided the material was not being used 
for rebuilding and was not of architectural or artistic 
value. Commissions for the evaluation of such ma- 
terial were provided for on February 13. By a law of 
January 10^ 1919, the Minister of Pubhc Works and 
Transport was empowered to take any steps necessary 
to insure the restoration of railway lines, including 
rolling stock and other appointments, to a condition 
equivalent to that in which they were on January 1, 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 55 

1914, a special credit of 600,000,000 francs being 
opened for this purpose. On February 2 all railway 
lines, except those in process of reconstruction and 
local lines operated by French companies or by the 
Allies, were ordered to be returned to their owners on 
and after February 10 and until the end of the war.^ 
A consultative committee on war damages was created 
within the Ministry of the Liberated Regions on Feb- 
ruary 17, while laws of March 4 and March 14 dealt 
with the delimitation and allotment of landed prop- 
erty in the devastated zone, and with proposals for the 
extension and replanning of towns. Finally, with the 
promulgation of the great statute of April 17 reestab- 
lishing the bases for the evaluation and settlement of 
war damages, the first period in the history of recon- 
struction ended and the restoration of the invaded 
departments entered upon a new phase. 

A review of the long period from August, 1914, to 
April, 1919, unquestionably affords abundant ground 
for criticism. It is clear that the government policy 
was lacking in definiteness and consistency, and that 
the division of administrative responsibility between 
the different ministries, all of which had at one time 
or another a voice in the matter, seriously impeded 
the work of reconstruction as a whole. On the other 
hand, every attempt to insure interministerial co- 
operation by creating new committees or commissions 
or by reorganizing old ones had failed, and the outlook 
in that direction was fairly to be regarded as hopeless. 

*The state of siege was raised on October 12, 1919, when the sig- 
nature of the treaty of Versailles by the President of the Council 
(M. Clemenceau) was approved by the chambers. 



66 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The all-important question of war damages had been 
dealt with throughout the war upon principles which, 
however well they may have accorded with law or 
precedent, had failed to meet the obvious necessities 
of sinistres. The volume of laws, decrees, and oflScial 
pronouncements was out of all proportion to the work 
actually accomplished, and the array of functionaries 
was excessive in comparison with the record of their 
achievement. What with a complicated and ineffective 
system, a redundant and largely undisciplined per- 
sonnel, an insufficient theory of indemnity for war 
losses, and only the beginnings of government credits, 
more than one sinistre felt that he had been left to 
work out his own salvation for the present and, for 
the future, to rest in hope. 

There were extenuating circumstances, however, that 
temper criticism. The problem of reconstruction, 
whether looked at from the point of view of legal 
theory or from that of administrative procedure, was 
a new one, and neither law nor experience threw much 
light upon its solution. Its material magnitude was 
appalling and its possible ramifications well-nigh limit- 
less. It would have been indeed remarkable if the 
right method of solution had been worked out in a few 
months, or if the best way of administering a task un- 
precedentedly huge and complex had been discovered 
without first trying a number of experiments, or if 
credits without limit had been voted for an undertak- 
ing whose colossal ultimate cost no one as yet could 
estimate. It should not be forgotten, moreover, that 
until November, 1918, the war was actively going on, 
and that the varying course of military operations, 



THE BEGINNINGS OF RECONSTRUCTION 57 

raising the nation to a high pinnacle of hope and 
confidence to-day, clouding the stoutest hearts with 
apprehension to-morrow, made the organization of 
defense and victory rather than the reconstitution of 
what had been destroyed the overshadowing considera- 
tion. No less than five ministries held office during 
the period of the war, and the union sacree which 
united political parties for the prosecution of the war 
did not prevent radical divergences of view in regard 
to reconstruction. Much has been written and more 
has been said about the slow and cumbersome methods 
of French administration and its inability to cope 
effectively with new conditions or with a crisis, but it 
may well be doubted if any nation, faced with the 
problem of reconstruction under the conditions in 
which that problem faced France down to 1919, would 
have been likely to accomplish more or temporize less. 
The extraordinary administrative inefficiency and de- 
moralization which prevailed in more than one branch 
of the public service in Great Britain and the United 
States both during and long after the war may well 
serve to moderate criticism of French shortcomings. 

Nor were the material results wholly discouraging. 
There was more progress in 1917-1918 than in 1915- 
1916, and more between the armistice and April, 1919, 
than during the previous year. In more than half of 
the invaded departments cantonal commissions were at 
work and advance payments on account were being 
made.^ Thanks in large part to the assistance which 

^See an important circular issued by M. Leon Malvy, Minister of 
the Interior, on May 7, 1917, reprinted in the Bulletin des Regions 
Liberees. 



58 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the government had granted and the credits which had 
been made available, a considerable percentage of the 
refugee population had returned by the spring of 1919, 
municipal life had been resumed in many communes, 
thousands of hectares were in crops, railways, roads, 
and bridges were actually being restored, rebuilding 
had been begun, and local trade was reviving. The 
work of removing explosives, barbed wire, and military 
debris from cultivable land had already proceeded far. 
The larger towns had church services and primary 
schools, the provision of telegraph, telephone, and elec- 
tric light was being extended, and young men and 
women were marrying and beginning home life in the 
ruins. That much of what had been accomplished 
was the work of the people rather than of the govern- 
ment, that progress was very unevenly distributed and 
great areas still remained almost untouched, and that 
the aggregate was small in comparison with what re- 
mained to be done, was obvious enough ; but the task 
was colossal. The shortcomings of the government 
had indeed been many and serious, but the call was 
nevertheless for courage, intelligence, devotion, and 
sacrifice rather than for recrimination or despair. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE POLICY OF REPARATION 

The law of April 17, 1919, providing for the repara- 
tion of war damages, was evolved only after long con- 
troversy in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and 
earnest discussion in the press and in the country. 
Conflicting theories of law, policy, and procedure, each 
supported by strong arguments and expounded by able 
advocates, struggled for ascendancy in the long debate. 
No government had ever committed itself to the propo- 
sition that losses occasioned by war were to be reim- 
bursed by the state as a matter of right, or that finan- 
cial responsibility attached to a whole people for mak- 
ing good the injuries which a part of the people had 
suffered. As a matter of fact most war losses had 
never been reimbursed at all, the inhabitants of a 
war zone, whether or not they were themselves in any 
way responsible for the war, being with rare excep- 
tions left to bear in their own persons or property the 
injuries which they had sustained. If their houses had 
been destroyed, it was they who must rebuild ; if their 
farms were ravaged, it was they who must restore 
fields, pastures, orchards, or woodland; if their indus- 
tries were prostrated, it was they who must set them 
up again. When reparation had been accorded by the 
state it had always been as an act of grace, a favor 
by which the state acknowledged the sacrifice which 
the citizen had made on its behalf; but it had never 

59 



60 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

been recognized as a right which the citizen might 
claim, either politically before a legislature or legally 
before a court. No claim for damages could properly 
be lodged against the state unless the state had erred, 
and no state that went to war, whether for aggression 
or for defense, ever regarded itself as having erred. 

The history of France showed confusing divergences 
of theory and practice. On July 31^ 1792, the National 
Assembly approved the following introduction to a law 
providing for the payment of damages in the frontier 
departments: "The National Assembly, considering 
that if in a war whose object is the conservation of 
liberty, independence, the French constitution, every 
citizen owes to the state the sacrifice of his life and 
his fortune, the state ought in its turn to protect the 
citizens who devoted themselves to its defense ; wishing 
to give to foreign nations the first example of the fra- 
ternity which unites the citizens of a free people and 
which makes of common concern to all the individuals 
of the social body the injuries occasioned to one of its 
members, the Assembly decrees urgency and lays down 
the principle of national responsibility." The law 
itself, however, restricted indemnities to those losses 
only which had been caused by enemies, and made the 
payments proportional to the fortune which the citi- 
zen still retained, and to his needs, and to the losses 
which could be proved. If he were still rich he had 
little to hope for; if he were poor he might be more 
or less completely reimbursed. 

Again, in 1793, the Convention declared "in the 
name of the nation" that it would "indemnify all citi- 
zens for the losses which they have suffered or which 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 61 

they shall suffer by reason of the invasion of French 
territory by the enemy, or by demolitions or injuries 
which the common defense has required on our part." 
The declaration showed an advance on that of 1792 in 
that it included losses occasioned by French troops. 
The decree which gave effect to the declaration, how- 
ever, limited the indemnity of any one person to twice 
the net income of his real property, and to not more 
than 2,000 livres for personalty. 

The same contrariety appeared in 1871, after the 
Franco-Prussian war. A commission of the National 
Assembly laid down the broad principle that "the war 
contributions, requisitions in money or in kind, fines, 
and direct material damages which the war and in- 
vasion have visited upon the inhabitants, communes, 
and departments of a portion of French territory will 
be borne by the whole nation." The influence of 
Thiers was sufficient to change this, when the law came 
to be voted, to read : "A reparation will be accorded to 
all those who have suffered, during the invasion, war 
contributions, requisitions in money or kind, fines, and 
material damages." In reporting in 1873 votes of 
credit for the payment of these damages, care was 
taken to announce that neither a right to indemnity 
nor the existence of a state debt was to be understood 
as implied; while the report which accompanied the 
law of July 28, 1874, providing further credits, frankly 
stated that in the view of the commission "the measure 
will be considered as wholly exceptional ; it constitutes 
an indemnity accorded solely as an act of grace.^ 

* These examples are taken from the statement of reasons accom- 
panying the proposed law submitted to the Chamber of Deputies on 



62 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The question of whether or not reparation for war 
losses should be recognized as a right rather than as 
an act of grace was obviously different from the ques- 
tion as to what losses should be reimbursed, but in 
practice a decision of the one question involved con- 
sideration of the other. On the first point the govern- 
ment early reached a decision. The announcement to 
the prefects on October 27, 1914, of the purpose of the 
government to aid, with all the means at its disposal, 
the people who were suffering from the war and to call 
upon the departments not invaded for help, does not 
of itself imply any fundamental change either in 
theory or in practice. On December 22, however, in 
a declaration to the chambers, the government stated 
its position. "Under the pressure of invasion depart- 
ments have been occupied and ruins have accumulated. 
The government takes before you a solemn engage- 
ment, which it has already in part executed, in pro- 
posing to you a first opening of credit of three hun- 
dred millions. France will restore those ruins, count- 
ing confidently upon the proceeds of the indemnities 
which we shall exact and, in the meantime, upon the 
help of a contribution which the whole nation will 
pay, gladly, in the distress of a part of its children, to 
fulfill the role of national solidarity. Further, repudi- 
ating the form of relief, which indicates favor, the state 
itself proclaims the right to reparation for the benefit 
of those who have been victims, in the matter of their 
possessions, of acts of war, and it will fulfiU its duty 
to the largest limits which the financial capacity of 
the country shall permit and under conditions which 

May 11, 1915, citing Joseph Barthelemy, Le principe de la reparation 
integrale des dommages caiises par la guerre. 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 63 

a special law, designed to avoid all injustice and all 
arbitrariness, will determine." 

This statement, unique in the history of govern- 
ments, was followed on December 26 by the law, al- 
ready referred to, creating departmental commissions 
of evaluation and appropriating 300,000,000 francs 
toward the payment of war damages. That losses 
caused by French or Allied troops were not yet con- 
sidered as damages to be reimbursed is evident from 
the extension to the invaded communes in February, 
1915, of the benefits of a law of 1877 relating to pay- 
ments for property requisitioned by the military 
forces. 

The legislative history of the law of April 17, 1919, 
begins with the presentation by the government to the 
Chamber of Deputies on May 11, 1915, of a proposed 
law regarding war damages. The law itself was brief, 
providing only (1) that reparation was to be made 
for injuries to real or personal property occasioned by 
the war, provided such injuries are "material, certain, 
and direct"; (2) that the right to indemnity should 
be conditioned upon the reemployment of the indem- 
nity in ways similar to those in which the damaged 
property had been used; (3) reserving for later legis- 
lation the treatment of indemnities due to communes, 
departments, public enterprises, and state or local con- 
cessionaires ; and (4) denying the right of recourse 
to the courts for the recovery of the indemnities 
proposed. 

A scrutiny of the proposed law and of the statement 
of reasons which accompanied it ^ shows clearly the 

* Chamber of Deputies, 1915, No. 904. The official sponsors for 
the proposed law were MM. Rene Viviani, President of the Council 



64 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

position of the government at this time. Indemnity 
for war losses was recognized as a right and not as a 
favor, although not as a right which could be prose- 
cuted in the courts. The right extended to depart- 
ments, communes, corporations, or enterprises of a 
public character, and state or local concessionaires as 
well as to individuals. It was not expected that the 
indemnities would necessarily be paid immediately or 
that the state, in conceding a right to indemnity, 
thereby pledged itself to an aggregate of payments be- 
yond its means. The particular financial arrange- 
ments which would be necessary were left for later con- 
sideration, when the results of the evaluation of dam- 
ages should be known; in the meantime 300,000,000 
francs had been made available for urgent needs. In 
no case, however, was a sinistre to be entitled to in- 
demnity unless the indemnity was to be reemployed, 
and the state claimed a right to supervise both the 
composition of the claim and the conditions of reem- 
ployment. Under no circumstances, moreover, were 
indirect losses to be indemnified. Finally, it was the 
welfare of France and not merely the restoration of 
certain invaded districts that was to be kept in view. 
"It is not to the invaded departments," declares the 
statement of reasons, "that the nation owes legitimate 
indemnity ; it is to itself. It is not our frontier depart- 
ments that have been invaded, it is France." The law 
to be invoked, in other words, was not civil but social. 
The adoption thus early in the war of a new prin- 
ciple of national responsibility for war damages, even 

(Premier), A. Ribot, Minister of Finance, L. Malvy, Minister of the 
Interior, and Gaston Doumergue, Minister of the Colonies. 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 65 

with the limited scope which as yet was given to the 
principle in application, cannot well be separated from 
the question of the German reparations and indem- 
nities. Any detailed consideration of this latter ques- 
tion, in either its theory or its practical ramifications, 
would be outside the purpose of the present discussion. 
It may be pointed out, however, that France might 
well have hesitated to assume the huge financial re- 
sponsibility which the restoration of the invaded de- 
partments was certain to involve if it had not, in com- 
mon with its Allies, assumed that the cost of restora- 
tion would ultimately be paid by Germany. The 
eventual embodiment of this assumption in the treaty 
of Versailles ^ not only gave international approval to 
the principle which France had announced, so far at 
least as France was concerned, and which had received 
by 1919 a far wider extension than it had in 1915, but 
also bound the Allied and Associated Powers to see to 
it that the application of the principle was not de- 
feated by failure on the part of Germany to meet the 
requirements imposed upon it. France, in other words, 
was in good faith bound to proceed with reconstruction 
as a national task, and Germany was bound to pay. 
The success of the reconstruction policy, accordingly, 
once its foundation principle was enunciated, became 
inseparably bound up with the question of reparations 
and indemnities to be exacted from Germany; and 
while it is hardly conceivable that France would have 

*"The Allied and Associated Governments declare and Germany 
recognizes that Germany and its allies are responsible, by reason of 
having caused them, for all the losses and all damages sustained by 
the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals in conse- 
quence of the war which has been imposed upon them by the 
aggression of Germany and its allies" (Part VIII, Article 231). 



66 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

repudiated the principle of national responsibility even 
if the demand for reparation had failed, it was clear 
that the government might before long be gravely 
embarrassed financially if the huge advances which it 
must make in anticipation of repayment were not 
eventually reimbursed.^ 

Further progress in the elaboration of the law was 
for a long time blocked by the attitude of the Chamber 
of Deputies, Notwithstanding the traditional concep- 
tion of the Senate as essentially an aristocratic body 
and of the Chamber of Deputies as the body which 
most accurately represented the people, it was the 
deputies who stubbornly insisted that the reemploy- 
ment of indemnities should be made compulsory if 
anything beyond the original value of the property was 
to be reimbursed. In ministerial circles, too, this posi- 
tion had influential support. The reason for the atti- 
tude of the Chamber of Deputies was not to be found 
in a desire to do less than justice to the sinistres, but 
rather in the fear that if the reemployment of indem- 
nities was not made compulsory many sinistres would 
take their indemnities but would not return to the in- 
vaded departments. The fact that a good many sin- 
istres had reestablished their businesses in other parts 
of France, taken in connection with the long period 
which it was believed must elapse before the recon- 
struction of the devastated area could be accomplished, 
was pointed to as convincing proof of what would 
happen if reemployment were not made obligatory. 
Only with compulsory reemployment, it was insisted, 

* Andre Toulemon, La Reparation des Dommages de Guerre (Paris, 
1921), has some interesting observations on the international aspects 
of reparations and reconstruction. 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 67 

would the return of the industrial population be in- 
sured and the migration of considerable numbers of 
sinistres prevented. That this fear had any substan- 
tial foundation is not apparent, but it seems to have 
been genuinely entertained. 

The widespread dissatisfaction which the position 
of the Chamber of Deputies occasioned among the 
sinistres led, however, to a modification of the provi- 
sions regarding reemployment. In place of compulsory 
reemployment the tribunals for the evaluation of war 
damages were authorized to dispense with the require- 
ment in cases where physical or moral obstacles made 
reemployment impracticable or impossible. With this 
concession the proposed law, after more than a year 
and a half of discussion, was finally adopted by the 
Chamber on January 23, 1917. But the modified pro- 
posal proved to be no more acceptable to the sinistres 
than the original had been. Strong opposition was 
voiced to leaving the question of reemployment to the 
decision, very possibly prejudiced, of any tribunal, and 
to requiring sinistres to divulge their private affairs, 
physical condition, or plans as a condition of the free 
use of their indemnities. It was the Senate rather 
than the popular Chamber that championed liberty. 
In an able report submitted to the Senate on August 
3 by M. Reynald the whole theory of social vs. indi- 
vidual interest in reconstruction was traversed and 
compulsory reemployment rejected. The vice of the 
theory of compulsory reemployment, it was pointed 
out, was the belief that reconstruction would be 
hastened by putting pressure upon sinistres who were 
already attached to the soil by virtue of owning their 



68 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

property, at the same time that no such pressure was 
exercised upon the far larger number of sinistres who 
had no real property and who consequently were free 
to migrate. Compulsory reemployment was further 
declared to be objectionable because it interfered with 
individual rights and established a species of servitude. 
Most of all, however, it involved a fundamental eco- 
nomic error. "It is the desire that the invaded country 
shall be restored, that its strength and energy shall be 
reestablished; we desire that also; but we are also 
deeply persuaded that only a policy of liberty will 
permit or favor that rebirth." ^ 

A compromise was accordingly proposed under 
which a premium was to be placed upon reemploy- 
ment, the sinistre being left free to reemploy or not as 
he chose. If he did not reemploy, his indemnity would 
be limited to the loss actually sustained, which would 
mean the value of his property in 1914. If, on the 
other hand, he contributed by reemployment to the 
general work of restoration, his indemnity would in- 
clude not only the value of his property in 1914 but 
also a supplementary amount sufficient, counting the 
enhanced cost of construction, to enable him to rebuild 
substantially as before the war. 

The proposed law thus modified was adopted by the 
Senate on December 22. The Chamber of Deputies 
refused to accept the proposal regarding reemployment, 
still insisting that the obligation to reemploy should 
be dispensed with only on the authorization of a 
tribunal. A report embodying this position was laid 
before the Senate on September 27. Before it had 

'The Reynald report (Senate, 1917, No. 315) is in the Jourml 
Officiel, November 6. 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 69 

been finally acted upon the armistice of November 
11 had ended hostilities. With the certainty that the 
cost of reparation would now be charged to Germany, 
reconstruction entered upon a new phase. The Min- 
ister of Blockade and of the Liberated Regions inter- 
ested himself to bring about an accord between the 
chambers by proposing a discrimination, in case in- 
demnities were not reemployed, between sinistres who 
offered good and sufficient reasons and those who did 
not. Organizations of sinistres also exerted strong 
pressure upon the Chamber of Deputies, the dean of 
the faculty of law, M. Larnande, threw his influence 
into the scale, and a meeting of the States General of 
the devastated regions, presided over by M. Ribot, 
was held. The budget commission of the Chamber of 
Deputies, whose opinion had been called for, reported 
on December 18 that reparations should be complete 
and immediate. With slight modification the minis- 
terial suggestion was reluctantly accepted, and on 
February 1, 1919, the Chamber of Deputies adopted 
the amended project.^ 

The Senate, still the champion of the sinistres and 
of liberty, not only refused to recede from its position 
in regard to reemployment, but also restored to mer- 
cantile capital the right to indemnification which the 
Chamber of Deputies had denied. Certain limitations 
on the amount to be paid in indemnities were also in- 
corporat.ed.2 The amended draft, adopted on March 

a/ Sf fulJ statements of the points at issue see the two reports of 
M. Edouard Eymond, September 27 and December 6, 1918 (Chamber 
of Deputies, 1918, Nos. 5021 and 5375). The budget commission 
report, contammg wealth of data regarding war losses, is No. 5432. 
Reynald report, March 5 (Senate, 1919, No. 79), where the text 
of the law as adopted by the Chamber of Deputies and the changes 
proposed by the Senate are shown in parallel columns 



70 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

25, was laid before the Chamber of Deputies on April 
3. The Chamber accepted the proposal of freedom 
in the matter of reemployment, coupled with a 
premium in case the indemnity was reemployed, and 
relieved the sinistre from the necessity of obtaining the 
authorization of a tribunal if the indemnity was not to 
be reemployed, save where the right to indemnity had 
been assigned. The exclusion of mercantile capital, 
however, was adhered to, although a special law was 
promised to deal with the subject. The other changes 
concerned details rather than principles.^ The 
amended proposal was transmitted to the Senate on 
April 11, and on the 17th was approved.^ 

More than three years and eleven months had 
passed since the law was first proposed. The first 
period of consideration in the Chamber of Deputies 
had covered a year and eight months, the Senate had 
followed with a debate extending over eleven months, 
and the Chamber of Deputies had again deliberated 
for thirteen months. No less than nine elaborate re- 
ports had been submitted. Whatever defects the law 
might contain, no one could say that it had not been 
long and carefully considered, that every argument 
had not been repeatedly weighed, or that the sinistres 
and their representatives had not had abundant oppor- 
tunity to be heard. No law of the Republic had ever* 
been more thoroughly debated or more painstakingly 
framed. 

By the law of April 17, 1919, all damages certain, 
material, and direct, in France and Algiers, to real or 

"Eymond report, April 5 (Chamber of Deputies, 1919, No. 5946). 
'Reynald report, April 11 (Senate, 1919, No. 171). 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 71 

personal property due to acts of war are entitled to 
reparation as promised by the law of December 26, 
1914. Five classes of injuries or losses are recognized: 
(1) requisitions or other exactions of the enemy; (2) 
movable property of all kinds carried away, injured, 
or destroyed, including losses during evacuation or 
repatriation; (3) real property injured or destroyed, 
including forests and commercial, agricultural, or in- 
dustrial property recognized as real property by desti- 
nation; (4) losses under any of the three classes just 
specified which occurred within the military zone, 
without regard to questions of legal liability ordinarily 
applicable to property so situated; (5) injuries or 
losses sustained by fishing vessels. Losses caused by 
acts of the French or Allied armies are entitled to 
reparation as well as those caused by the enemy. Sub- 
ject to special regulations in particular cases, the right 
to indemnity is extended to associations, public cor- 
porations, communes, and departments as well as to 
individuals and their heirs. 

The indemnity for losses of real property is fixed 
at an amount equal to the value of the property on 
the eve of mobilization, allowance being made for 
depreciation, supplemented by such amounts as are 
necessary for reconstruction or repair, taking into 
account the difference in cost between 1914 and the 
date when the evaluation is made. If the indemnity 
is not to be employed in rebuilding or restoration, only 
the amount of the actual loss sustained is to be re- 
imbursed. Where the deduction on account of depre- 
ciation through age exceeds 10,000 francs, the excess 
is to be advanced by the state to the sinistre upon 



72 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

demand, subject to repayment. In the case of agri- 
cultural property the deduction for depreciation is not 
to exceed twenty per cent, of the estimated cost of 
construction at the time of mobilization. Reemploy- 
ment of the indemnity is, in general, to be effected 
within the commune where the loss was sustained or 
within a radius of fifty kilometres therefrom, but not 
outside of the war zone. In the case of real property 
other than buildings, the amount of damages reim- 
bursable is to be determined by taking into account 
the deterioration of the soil, vineyards, forests, in- 
closures, etc., and the cost of restoration if the indem- 
nity is to be reemployed. 

Where an indemnity is not to be reemployed, the 
amount due is to be paid to the sinistre in the form 
of a bond {litre) bearing interest at five per cent., 
inalienable for five years, and payable in cash after 
five years in ten annual installments. 

Losses of personal property are to be indemnified 
on the basis of the value of the property on June 30, 
1914, except in the case of agricultural products, where 
the date of evaluation is the date when the crop would 
have matured. Supplements for replacement over and 
above the estimated value at the time of loss or injury 
are allowed, in the case of material or equipment em- 
ployed in commerce or industry,, to an amount neces- 
sary to enable the business to be carried on for three 
months; in the case of agricultural equipment, to the 
next harvest; in the case of personal effects, household 
furniture, and the like, to an amount not exceeding 
3,000 francs for any one claimant. Losses of govern- 
ment bonds or coupons are to be made good by the 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 73 

delivery of other securities of the same kind. Pro- 
vision is also made for the indemnification of public 
officials who lost their offices, the details, however, 
being left for later regulation. The restoration of 
public buildings of historical or artistic value is placed, 
under the immediate supervision of a special commis- 
sion attached to the Ministry of Public Instruction and 
Fine Arts, the basis of indemnity being the estimated 
cost of constructing a similar building for similar pur- 
poses or, if reconstruction is deemed inadvisable, the 
cost of a new site. 

For the evaluation of damages commissions are 
created in each canton. Each commission consists of 
five members, one, the president, being a lawyer or 
judge, one a representative of the ministries of Finance 
and the Liberated Regions, one an architect, contractor, 
or engineer, one an expert in matters of personal- 
property valuation, and one a farmer, manufacturer, 
merchant, or workman, the choice in the latter case 
being determined by the nature of the damages to be 
evaluated. Special commissions are provided for mines 
and forests. The cantonal commissions are aided by 
a technical committee appointed in each department^ 

For the revision of the evaluations made by the can- 
tonal commissions and the adjustment of contro- 
versies, there is further provided in each arrondissement 
in which cantonal commissions have been organized a 
tribunal of war damages, divided into as many sections 
or chambers, each of five members, as the conduct of 
business may require. Claims for damages, supported 
by the necessary proofs, are submitted to the cantonal 
commissions, which are empowered to view the prop- 



74 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

erty, examine witnesses, and reconcile disputes. The 
final decision regarding the nature and extent of losses 
and the amount of indemnity rests with the tribunal 
of the arrondissement. The decisions of the tribunal, 
except on questions of fact, are subject to review by 
the Council of State. 

The payment of indemnities is to be made by the 
delivery of a preliminary or ad interim certificate, non- 
negotiable, exchangeable within two months for a bond 
(titre) covering the principal sum allowed, together 
with interest at five per cent, from the date at which 
the loss was incurred. If the sinistre reemploys his 
indemnity, he is entitled to a first advance of from 
3,000 to 100,000 francs on account of the estimated 
value of his property in 1914 or at the date of its 
injury or destruction, and to advances of the balance 
in proportion to the progress of the reemployment. 
Additional advances may also be made to meet urgent 
needs. The right is reserved to the state, however, to 
discharge its obligations in whole or in part by granting 
to the sinistre real property of a similar nature and 
equal value to that destroyed, or by the replacement 
of personal property, or by itself carrying out the work 
of restoration or furnishing the necessary materials. 
The state may also take over any real property if the 
cost of restoring the land exceeds the value of the land. 
A right of priority is accorded to sinistres in procuring 
and transporting material and in obtaining labor. The 
entire cost of clearing away the debris (deblaiement) , 
removing explosives, and reestablishing the lines of 
public ways, together with responsibility for acci- 
dents occasioned by the explosion of projectiles, is 
assumed by the state. 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 75 

A few special classes of damages were reserved for 
later regulation. The list includes damages for losses 
of commercial capital/ personal injuries, losses sus- 
tained by state arsenals, factories, and munition depots, 
and losses of private factories operated for purposes of 
national defense where no redress at common law can 
be obtained. 

Such are the main provisions of the law of war dam- 
ages. Its leading principles are simple. The state 
undertakes to reimburse all direct and material losses 
occasioned by the war. If the sinistre does not intend 
to rebuild his property and resume his former occu- 
pation, the reimbursement which he will receive is 
limited to the estimated value of his property at the 
time of its destruction, as ascertained by commissions 
and tribunals created for the purpose of evaluating 
losses. If the property is to be reconstructed and the 
former occupation resumed, reimbursement is enlarged 
to include the estimated cost of rebuilding and re- 
establishment. In the case of historical or artistic 
monuments which cannot be rebuilt^ but which at the 
same time represent social services which should con- 
tinue to be performed, the indemnity is limited to the 
cost of a new site; otherwise the indemnity to be ac- 
corded equals the estimated cost of reconstruction or 
repair. Immediate cash advances are authorized for 
urgent needs, the balance of the indemnity being paid 
in installments as the work of reconstruction progresses. 
In addition, the state assumes all the expense of clear- 
ing ruins and debris and ridding the soil of explosives, 

* The Minister of the Liberated Regions, replying to a question in 
the Chamber of Deputies on October 18, 1921, stated that a proposed 
law on this subject had been drafted by the ministry and was await- 
ing the signature of the Minister of Finance. 



76 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

at the same time asserting title to all the material so 
dealt with. Practically, the whole process of restora- 
tion is placed under state control, not with the purpose 
of eliminating the individual but in order that the task 
may be properly performed. 

The law of war damages is one of the great legis- 
lative enactments of modern times. In its assumption 
on the part of the state of responsibility for the indem- 
nification of all direct and material losses due to the 
war, it not only enlarged beyond precedent the rights 
of the individual and bound the citizen to t]ie state in 
new ties of obligation and common interest, but it also 
pledged the faith and credit of the state to the financial 
support of an undertaking the like of which was never 
attempted by any government. 

There is a wider application and a deeper signifi- 
cance, also, which should not be lost sight of. Those 
who framed the law of 1919 may perhaps have been 
concerned, as practical men, chiefly with the erection 
of a system under which the devastated departments 
might, with the ultimate help of German reparations, 
be effectively and speedily restored. But they also 
created what may possibly prove to be one of the 
strongest safeguards against future war. In the days 
when kings and ministries made war and peace the 
restoration of destroyed property was not a factor; but 
now that France, recognizing its obligations as a sov- 
ereign state to make good to its citizens the losses 
which they sustained, has in common with the Allies 
exacted from Germany a promise of ultimate reim- 
bursement, no future war can be begun save in appre- 
hension of a like exaction from the aggressor. The 



THE POLICY OF REPARATION 77 

demands of chancellories may be less haughty and the 
assertiveness of national spirit more restrained if once 
it is realized that to the cost of every shell may perhaps 
be added the cost of replacing what the shell destroys. 



CHAPTER V 

THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 

It will be recalled that at the moment of the adop- 
tion of the law of April 17, 1919, the immediate direc- 
tion of the reconstitution of the invaded departments 
had been committed mainly to two ministries, the 
Ministry of Industrial Reconstruction and the Minis- 
try of the Liberated Regions. The railways, however, 
were still under the supervision of the Ministry of 
Public Works and Transport, and the restoration of 
monuments, but not the evaluation of damages to 
them, had been placed by law in the hands of a special 
commission responsible to the Minister of Public In- 
struction and Fine Arts. The execution of certain pro- 
visions of the law of April, 1919, also involved action 
by the Minister of Finance, sometimes independently 
and again jointly with the Minister of the Liberated 
Regions ; and the Minister of Public Works and Trans- 
port and the Minister of Justice also had duties to 
perform. In addition, there was in existence a consul- 
tative committee on war damages, organized on Feb- 
ruary 17, 1919, within the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions, but in reality having a quasi-independent 
status and comprising in its membership senators and 
deputies as well as ministerial functionaries. The old 
interministerial committee also continued. 

78 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 79 

It was the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, to 
which was presently attached so much of the work of 
industrial reconstruction as concerned the invaded 
departments, which in this galaxy of ofi&cial heads 
played in practice the leading role. It never obtained 
complete control of the process of reconstruction, how- 
ever. The important subject of financial credits, upon 
which after all the success of reconstruction ultimately 
depended, could not of course be transferred to it. The 
treatment of monuments remained in charge of the 
Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, the 
reparation of damages occasioned by French troops 
involved the Ministry of War, and various interna- 
tional questions fell under the jurisdiction, in whole or 
in part, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That the 
evils of divided authority were less after April, 1919, 
than before was, however, largely due to the fact that 
the Ministry of the Liberated Regions became, from 
the nature of the undertaking, the preponderant factor. 

With the adoption of the law of war damages the 
organization of the machinery of administration went 
on rapidly. A series of circulars and decrees issued in 
April by the Minister of the Liberated Regions, M. A. 
Lebrun, applied with admirable clearness and precision 
the new provisions relating to the constitution of the 
cantonal commissions, while later circulars in June 
and September outlined the principles and procedure 
applicable to the evaluation of damages. Nothing 
fundamental had afterwards to be added to these 
important pronouncements. Technical committees 
were also established in each department for the deter- 
mination of values and costs upon which the award of 



80 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

damages for actual losses and supplementary allow- 
ances for replacement could be based. The consulta- 
tive committee on war damages was enlarged in June 
by adding to it the presidents of the commissions of 
the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies having to do 
with legislation affecting the liberated departments, 
together with two representatives each of agriculture, 
industry^ and commerce. 

These steps were followed on July 16 by the creation 
of an economic council, charged with the preparation 
and execution of a general plan for the supply of food 
and other necessaries in the liberated regions, the re- 
duction of the cost of living, the repression of specu- 
lation, and the general development of economic life. 
The council, over which the Premier presided, com- 
prised eight Cabinet ministers and was expected to 
meet at least once a week. To it was attached a per- 
manent commission, including among others five under- 
secretaries of state, the president of the old inter- 
ministerial committee, and three representatives each 
of employers and workers. Besides serving as a kind 
of executive committee of the economic council, the 
permanent commission was also charged with the 
establishment of relations with municipalities, agricul- 
tural, commercial, and industrial groups, organizations 
of workers or employers, cooperative societies, and 
other bodies. 

The precise relation which the economic council was 
expected to bear to the various ministries concerned 
with reconstruction is not clear. Practically it was 
another interministerial committeCj but having to do 
with the formulation of general economic policies 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 81 

rather than with the more troublesome task of insuring 
ministerial cooperation. 

In order to secure still greater unity in the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions, the central and departmental 
services of the ministry were in August reconstituted. 
In the central administration the administrative and 
technical functions were separated, the latter now in- 
cluding materials, transport, labor^ reconstruction of 
highways and local railways, and agriculture. In each 
department the prefect was made the administrative 
head of all branches of the service, and the director as 
well of all the technical services and of all work under- 
taken by the state. To any one familiar with the num- 
ber and variety of duties which devolve upon a prefect 
in ordinary times, the additional duties imposed by 
the new decree would seem to have constituted an 
almost impossible burden, notwithstanding the fact 
that the decree associated with the prefect a secretary- 
general for administrative work and a director-general 
for technical matters. A service of control, constituted 
on September 8 for the supervision of the execution of 
laws, decreeSj etc., by the Ministry of the Liberated! 
Regions, was also transferred to the prefects on Octo- 
ber 2. The net effect of the two decrees was to make 
the prefect the most important agent in reconstruction 
next to the Minister of the Liberated Regions himself.^ 

Shortly after the armistice the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions obtained an absolute right of priority 

* For a model of luminous exposition of a complicated subject see 
the circular addressed by the prefect of the Nord, M. Armand 
Naudin, on November 11, 1919, to the administrative agents having 
to do with the cantonal commissions for the evaluation of war 
damages {Bulletin des Regions Liberies, June 6, 1920). 



82 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

in the purchase of such material in the left-over army 
stocks of the Allies as could be utilized in recon- 
struction. A special service of cessions, organized in 
December, 1918, supervised the examination of the 
stocks accumulated at the various depots throughout 
France and the selection and distribution of the ma- 
terial. Included in the acquisition were between forty 
and fifty thousand horses and mules from the American 
depots near Coblentz, Neufchateau, and Chatillon-sur- 
Seine. Down to June 30, 1919, property to the value 
of 438,755,000 francs, comprising wagons and auto- 
mobiles, medical supplies, chemicals, machinery and 
tools, barraques, clothing, furniture, and more than two 
thousand varieties of construction material had been 
ceded to the ministry and was in process of distribu- 
tion or sale for the benefit of sinistres. 

A further reorganization of the central administra- 
tion of the Ministry of the Liberated Regions on 
January 10, 1920, was shortly followed by a larger step 
in the direction of consolidation. The oSice of indus- 
trial reconstruction, from the nature of its functions 
one of the most important agencies which had been 
created, had undergone varying fortunes. First organ- 
ized in August, 1917, it had been transferred in 
December of that year to the hybrid Ministry of 
Blockade and of the Liberated Regions, where it 
remained until November, 1918, when the reorganiza- 
tion of the Ministry of Armaments and War Fabrica- 
tions transferred it to the new Ministry of Industrial 
Reconstruction. It was now detached from the latter 
ministry and incorporated in the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions. The main lines of railway having 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 83 

by this time been returned to their owners, practically 
all of the work of material restoration within the war 
area, except monuments, was at last centralized in the 
hands of a single ministry. The economic council 
dropped quietly out of sight, and the interministerial 
committee, which had been again reorganized in 
December, 1919, appears to have taken no action which 
became a matter of public record. Indeed, through a 
provision empowering the president of the committee 
to study on the spot questions which came before the 
committee when authorized to do so by the Minister 
of the Liberated Regions, the committee was virtually 
subordinated to the ministry. 

Save in one important respect which will presently 
be mentioned, later administrative changes were mainly 
formal. The various services grouped within the 
Ministry of the Liberated Regions were from time to 
time rearranged, but the general system remained the 
same. The special committee which had been formed 
in September, 1917, to deal with the question of 
housing was revived in April, 1920, with an enlarged 
membership, and intrusted with the study of general 
questions affecting reconstruction. This action, prac- 
tically of little importance, was followed on May 3 by 
the establishment of a superior council to deal with 
materials, labor, and transport. It was hoped that this 
body, the membership of which included representa- 
tives of numerous associations of employers, would be 
able to formulate an annual program of rebuilding 
based upon the resources of the budget and the avail- 
able supplies of material and labor. Nothing of the 
kind appears to have been done, however, and the 



84 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

history of the council is mainly comprised in the record 
of its formation. 

To the sinistre, bereft of his property by the war and 
anxious now that the war was Qver to recover his dam- 
ages and reestablish his occupation, business, or pro- 
fession, changes in administrative personnel or in the 
distribution of departmental duties were of relatively 
small interest. What he was chiefly concerned with 
was the speedy settlement of his claim to indemnity, 
prompt payment of damages, an adequate supply of 
material and labor for rebuilding, and temporary pro- 
vision of shelter, food, and supplies until he could once 
more stand upon his own feet. On all of these points 
the volume of complaint from the invaded departments 
continued to be large and its flow unbroken. The 
evaluation of damages, it was urged, went on at a 
snail's pace, disputes multiplied, and papers lay for 
months in the oflSces of prefects or commissions with- 
out signature or consideration. Spokesmen for the 
sinistres affirmed that there was still a serious lack of 
houses, that building material was difficult to obtain, 
that the railways were dilatory and government agents 
indifferent. Even after damages had been evaluated 
and the whole elaborate dossier of records made com- 
plete, government appropriation, it was averred, 
covered only a small part of what had been allotted 
and payments were delayed. Charges of incompe- 
tency, speculation, graft, and collusion filled the air 
and found an echo in Parliament and in the press. If 
the complaints were to be taken as the sole basis of 
judgment, the benefits of reconstruction were being 
reaped chiefly by salaried functionaries and rich com- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 85 

mercial or industrial organizations, while the mass of 
the population was being systematically neglected. 

So far as certain formal aspects of its work were 
concerned the Ministry of the Liberated Regions is not 
fairly to be charged with neglect. More than a thou- 
sand circulars, blanks, instructions, and papers of 
various kinds testify to its ceaseless activity in creating 
apparatus. Elaborate directions for the procedure of 
the cantonal commissions and the tribunals of the 
arrondissements, long instructions to the prefects and 
ministerial agents, explanations of provisions in the 
law of war damages and answers to questions submitted 
for decision, approved lists of architects and specimen 
forms of contracts, price lists of materials for sale, 
injunctions to commissions and agents to use courtesy 
and discretion and to commissions, agents, and sinistres 
to make haste, proposed laws and decrees embodying 
needed changes in previous enactments^ blank forms 
for everybody: these documents and many others, 
covering apparently every point that the work of re- 
construction could raise and spread broadcast through- 
out the liberated regions, are tangible evidence that the 
administrative mill was grinding even though the 
grinding was exceeding slow. 

It is to these multitudinous documents, primarily 
designed for engineers, architects, contractors, lawyers, 
and property owners, that one must go for an under- 
standing of the practical working of the reconstruction 
policy. Here as nowhere else is to be read the story 
of success and failure, of experiments made and prob- 
lems solved, of difficulties encountered and obstacles 
removed. So much of the system as has particularly 



86 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

to do with finance or with the restoration of mines, 
factories, railways, and agriculture will be discussed in 
later chapters, but certain features of a general charac- 
ter may properly be considered here. The question 
of war damages, the crux of the system, naturally comes 
first in order. 

The procedure for the evaluation of war damages 
as laid down in the law of April 17, 1919, and the 
ministerial instructions relating thereto is in substance 
as follows. Immediately upon the announcement by 
the prefect that a cantonal commission has been or- 
ganized, the sinistre is at liberty to file with the com- 
mission, or with the mayor or prefect if he so prefers, 
a statement of the losses which he has sustained. The 
statement, in the preparation of which the assistance 
of an approved architect or other expert will probably 
have been invoked, is to be as specific as possible and 
must show, in addition to the estimate of losses, any 
counter-claims or offsets such as mortgages, liens, cus- 
tomary rights, or promises of sale. Upon the presen- 
tation of the claim, properly certified, the sinistre, if 
he proposes to reemploy his indemnity in rebuilding, 
is entitled to an advance payment on account of the 
total indemnity to which he appears to be entitled. 

The amount of the indemnity which the law accords 
depends upon whether or not the sinistre proposes to 
reemploy his indemnity in the same general way in 
which the original property was employed, either in 
the same commune or, in special cases, elsewhere in 
the invaded area. If the indemnity is not to be re- 
employed — if, that is, the sinistre proposes to take his 
indemnity and use it as he pleases, without assurance 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 87 

that the money will be employed in reestablishing what 
has been destroyed — the amount of the indemnity is 
limited to the estimated value of the property, allow- 
ance being made for depreciation, on the eve of mobi- 
lization in 1914. If, on the other hand, the indemnity 
is to be reemployed, the amount is increased or "sup- 
plemented" by an amount representing the estimated 
cost of rebuilding or restoration at the time the claim 
for damages is allowed. 

In order to make possible an equitable and uniform 
treatment of sinistres at this point, elaborate inquiries 
were instituted by the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions into costs of material, labor, etc., in 1914. 
Similar inquiries were made for the period following 
the armistice. In practice, accordingly, the amount of 
the indemnity due in the case of reemployment was 
determined by multiplying the estimated value of the 
property in 1914 by a figure representing the number 
of times which building or other costs had increased 
between 1914 and the date of the award. This figure, 
known technically as the coefiicient, naturally varied 
at different times, for different materials, and for the 
same material in different departments. Until the end 
of 1920 the coefficients adopted ranged in general from 
3 to 6; in 1921 they declined to from 4 to 5 or 5.5. The 
tables of values prepared by the technical services of 
the ministry were not, indeed, binding upon the can- 
tonal commissions or the tribunals of the arrondisse- 
ments, or upon the experts whom the sinistre might 
call upon to assist in the evaluation of his losses, but 
they appear to have been generally used. 

The working of the system in cases in which the 



88 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

indemnity was not to be reemployed was relatively 
simple, since all that was necessary was to establish 
the value of the property in 1914 as determined by the 
estimated cost of rebuilding at that time. In the case 
of furniture and personal property generally, the valu- 
ation for the purpose of indemnity was the estimated 
cost of replacement at the time of loss or injury. The 
problem became more complicated in the case of in- 
tended reemployment. If, for example, the sinistre 
proposed to rebuild his property with a different and 
more expensive material or on a larger scale, or if a 
part only of the indemnity was to be reemployed, the 
calculations must take account of all the various dif- 
ferences in cost. Many sinistres began rebuilding be- 
fore their damages had been evaluated, and in such 
cases account had also to be taken of the work already 
done. If, on the other hand, the settlement of claims 
was long delayed and the coefl&cients of reconstruction 
rose during the interval, the sinistre naturally de- 
manded a revaluation for the purpose of recovering 
the increase in cost; while if in the interval between 
the first advance on account and the final settlement 
the coefficients had dropped, the cantonal commissions 
were prone to claim for the state the benefit of the 
change. The function of the commissions was limited 
to the establishment of the facts concerning the loss 
and the provisional estimation of the indemnity due. 
The commissions were also to do their best to reach an 
amicable agreement with the sinistre on these points 
in case their judgment was questioned. The final de- 
cision as to the amount of the indemnity, however, 
rested with the tribunal of the arrondissement, whose 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 89 

decision was conclusive unless an appeal on legal 
grounds was taken to the Council of State. 

It is difficult to see how the government could, on 
the whole, have adopted a better plan. War damages 
could not properly be paid without evaluation, the 
great differences between costs of reconstruction or 
replacement in 1914 and similar costs after the war 
were certainly to be taken into the account, and pay- 
ment in instalhnents was the only method financially 
possible. It is clear, however, that at this crucial point 
the reconstruction policy came near to breaking down. 
M. Louis Loucheur, Minister of the Liberated Regions, 
in an address at Albert on April 24, 1921, stated that 
of 2,750,000 dossiers embodying the claims of sinistres 
only 800,000 had thus far been adjudicated by the can- 
tonal commissions; and while he professed himself 
hopeful that the task would be completed by Decem- 
ber 31, he could give no real assurance that that result 
would be attained even if the commissions spurred 
themselves to the maximum of effort. Four months 
later he could hold out no better hope than that the 
number of dossiers remaining to be examined would 
be reduced to 800,000 at the end of the year.^ In other 
words, about one-third of the claims would still be 
awaiting settlement at the end of 1921, two years and 
nine months after the adoption of the law of war 
damages. 

There were various reasons for the delay. The can- 
tonal commissions were not always promptly organ- 
ized, not all were competent or energetic, and the 
numerous changes of procedure instituted by laws and 

*Le Temps (Paris), August 10, 1921. 



90 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

decrees entailed hesitation, confusion, and waste. As 
late as August, 1921, complaints were numerous that 
the evaluation of damages for agricultural losses was 
being postponed, and tha-t all the dossiers of a given 
sinistre were rarely considered at the same session. 
Evaluations made before the adoption of the law of 
April 17, 1919, were subject to revision after that date, 
at the demand of the sinistre, if the supplementary- 
indemnity was still to be reemployed. The sheer mass 
of papers to be examined swamped commissions and 
prefects at the same time that the elaborate formalities 
of official red tape cumbered progress. It was obvious 
enough that the commissions had more work than 
they could keep up with, but it was also obvious that 
their pace was neither steady nor rapid. 

Efforts on the part of the government to remedy 
these difficulties were not lacking. A law of April 27, 
1920, authorized municipal councils to form communal 
syndicates for the purpose of helping the reconstruc- 
tion of localities that had been destroyed. Another 
law of August 25 called for the filing of all demands 
for indemnity before December 1 unless such action 
by that date was physically impossible. In November 
the government itself took a direct hand in the matter 
by establishing in each department, under the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions, an administrative service of 
evaluation to instruct and direct the cantonal com- 
missions and the tribunals of the arrondissements, with 
a view to enabling those bodies "to proceed promptly 
to the making of equitable estimates according to 
rational methods." In June, 1921, a service of inspec- 
tion for the commissions and the tribunals was added 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 91 

and additional commissions were created in a number 
of cantons.^ It is a fair question whether so much of 
this legislation as made the state directly a party to 
the proceedings of the commissions and tribunals did 
not violate the spirit of the law of April 17, 1919, 
which seems clearly to have intended to leave both 
commissions and tribunals, the former as examining 
bodies and the latter as courts, free to perform their 
duties without administrative interference. 

A more commendable step was the creation in May, 
1921, of a temporary superior commission of war dam- 
ages for the adjudication on appeal of cases, hitherto 
devolved upon the Council of State, referred to it by 
the tribunals of the arrondissements or the prefec- 
torial councils. The commission was a strong body, 
comprising in its membership, in addition to four 
members of the Council of State and six members of 
higher courts, two professors of the Paris law faculty 
and two lawyers. It was slow in getting to work, how- 
ever, its first formal session not being held until Sep- 
tember 8 and its first public session only on October 22. 

Not all of the responsibility for delay is to be laid 
upon the cantonal commissions, or the tribunals of war 
damages, or the prefects, or the ministry. Many 
sinistres, especially among the peasants, were ignorant, 
unfamiliar with administrative formalities, and often 
unable of themselves to prepare the estimates and 
other papers required. The most strenuous efforts on 
the part of the Ministry of the Liberated Regions to 
explain the legal requirements in simple terms and to 

*An eighth commission for St. Quentin was organized in May, 
1921, and a third for Reims in August. 



92 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

bring the explanations to the attention of everybody 
often failed to secure a prompt filing of papers with 
the cantonal commissions, or to induce inattentive 
sinistres who had taken the first step to take the others 
which were necessary. Many sinistres fancied that 
they had fulfilled all of the requirements when they 
had made a preliminary declaration of their losses; 
some thought that the demand which they had filled 
out for an advance payment constituted the whole 
dossier required; still others interpreted the visit of a 
technical expert as implying an evaluation upon which 
the commission would base its decision. The diflBcul- 
ties of evaluation increased where buildings had been 
only partially destroyed, or where rebuilding had al- 
ready been begun or even completed, or where salvaged 
material had been used or was available, or where 
usable material had been stolen or carried off and 
could not be traced, or where experts disagreed. The 
allowance by the law of war damages of an interval of 
two years from the end of the war as the limit of time 
for filing declarations regarding the purpose to re- 
employ an indemnity was a further cause of delay. 
Not all of the sinistres were honest, and inflated claims 
for damages had always to be guarded against. 

The magnitude of the task and the diflSculties to be 
overcome in performing it had obviously been under- 
estimated. Beyond a certain point, and that a point 
much nearer than had apparently been assumed, the 
machinery of evaluation could not be speeded. Never- 
theless the total of accomplishment was considerable. 
Down to May 1, 1921, there had been deposited with 
the cantonal commissions 2,785,164 demands for in- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 93 

demnity, representing estimated actual losses of 34,- 
065,475,725 francs and indemnities of 105,920,002,046 
francs. Decisions had been rendered in 844,499 un- 
contested cases. These decisions awarded indemnities 
for actual losses of 2,674,110,035 francs as against 
3,177,326,125 francs demanded, and total indemnities 
of 8,077,928,357 francs as against 8,571,926,325 francs 
demanded. The number of contested cases was 16,212, 
involving allowances of 53,809,947 francs for actual 
losses in place of 94,480,087 francs claimed, and total 
indemnities of 157,936,358 francs in place of 257,140,- 
595 francs asked for. About thirty per cent, of the 
cases filed had been decided, and two per cent, of the 
decisions had been contested. The indemnities ac- 
corded, on the other hand, represented only a little 
more than ten per cent, of the total claims. In the 
contested cases the amount accorded by the commis- 
sions was about 100,000,000 francs less than the 
amount claimed. 

In addition to the indemnities for war losses, the 
government also assumed the cost of clearing ruins 
and removing debris. The magnitude of the task was 
appalling. In Armentieres, for example, upwards of 
100,000 wagon loads of debris had eventually to be 
removed. A call for bids for a part of this work, made 
in January, 1920, was based on an estimated expendi- 
ture of 2,046,000 francs. Provisional estimates of the 
cost of clearing in eleven other communes of the Lille 
arrondissement ranged from 51,000 to 625,000 francs, 
while the estimated cost of a single section in Lille 
itself was 983,000 francs. Similar estimates for a group 
of twenty-two villages near Chalons-sur-Marne in 



94 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

January, 1921, varied from 30,000 to 1,135,000 francs; 
for 59 communes in the Somme at the end of October,, 
1921, the combined estimate was 6,929,000 francs. 
Brick and stone that could be used for rebuilding were 
cleared and piled on the property to which they be- 
longed, wood was sorted for lumber or fuel, and metal 
was assembled at the railway for sale and transporta- 
tion as junk. Of the remaining material some was 
used for roads and some for concrete construction, but 
the larger part was carried by wagons, trucks, or light 
railways to waste places and dumped. Salvaged ma- 
terial was the property of the state, but such material 
as could be used for rebuilding was ceded to the sinistre 
if the indemnity was to be reemployed. 

An organized effort to solve the problem of provi- 
sional shelter for the returned population was made by 
the construction, throughout the devastated area, of 
large numbers of temporary houses, in addition to uti- 
lizing such abandoned military barraques, shops, and 
other buildings as could be made habitable. These 
temporary houses were of various kinds. The larger 
number were of wood, built in standard sizes with two, 
three, or four rooms each. Others were partly of wood 
but with roofs of tarred paper, canvas, or metal. Still 
others were adaptations of the famous Nissen huts, 
formed of three curved sections of corrugated iron 
bolted together, closed at the ends with wopden frame- 
work, and reenforced in some cases with an outer layer 
of brick or cement. More recently houses of reenforced 
cement or concrete have been introduced. Temporary 
granges and stables were also provided, stable and 
house being often combined under one roof as is fre- 
quently the case in French agricultural districts. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 95 

The provision of temporary houses was naturally 
most extensive in manufacturing or mining centers. 
In March, 1920, for example, the prefect of the Nord 
called for bids for 2,000 houses of various types at Lille, 
Douai, Cambrai, Valenciennes, and Avesnes, in addi- 
tion to 400 at places to be determined later. In July, 
1921, bids for 1,360 houses in the regions of Marcoing, 
Cambrai, Valenciennes, Avesnes, Haubourdin, Armen- 
tieres, Hazebrouck, Bailleul, and Douai, in the same 
department, were invited, the estimated cost being 
4,554,000 francs. 

In some cases occupancy of these temporary houses 
was free, but the larger number of houses and other 
buildings were rented, or sold at prices substantially 
less than the cost of construction. In the department 
of Meurthe-et-Moselle, for example, a circular of 
March 1, 1921, offered for sale at from 3,550 francs to 
4,800 francs wooden houses costing from 6,000 to 8,500 
francs, if the houses were to be occupied by the 
sinistres, and otherwise at cost. The rental price was 
fixed at two per cent, or five per cent, respectively of 
the cost price. Farm buildings of different types, 
costing from 4,050 to 8,500 francs, were sold under 
similar conditions for from 3,037 to 6,275 francs, with 
rentals at two or five per cent, as in the case of houses. 
A ministerial circular of March 30 fixed a uniform 
valuation for all the departments of from 6,500 to 
10,200 francs for houses of from two to four rooms, 
1,450 to 6,200 francs for four types of farm buildings, 
and other prices for large barraques or buildings for 
special purposes, rentals continuing to be reckoned at 
two or five per cent, according to whether the building 
was or was not to be occupied personally by the 



96 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

sinistre. Wooden buildings of standard sizes, deliv- 
ered in demountable condition by the ministry, were 
usually subject to a further substantial reduction of 
the estimated value in case the sinistre undertook to 
put the sections together. 

No part of the ministerial policy has been subjected 
to more severe or constant criticism in the press, in 
Parliament, and in the invaded departments than its 
housing program. It has been charged that the provi- 
sion of temporary houses has been wholly insufficient, 
thousands of families in the devastated area being 
still compelled to live in shacks, or dugouts, or dilapi- 
dated army barraques, or in a room or two of a ruined 
house hastily repaired. The wooden and iron houses, 
it is alleged, are cold in winter and hot in summer, 
crowded beyond possibility of cleanliness or decency, 
and sadly lacking in water supply and sanitary facili- 
ties. It is averred that many of the wooden houses 
are shabbily built and soon fall out of repair, and that 
the rentals charged are out of all proportion to the 
accommodations provided. The intimation is heard 
that the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, unable to 
cope with the housing problem, is in reality willing 
that the temporary structures shall continue to be 
occupied indefinitely, and to that end has encouraged 
the construction of semi-provisional houses or houses 
of durable material. Strong objection has also been 
voiced to the policy of forcing the long-continued occu- 
pancy of wooden or slightly built concrete houses 
upon a people who are accustomed only to solid and 
permanent buildings of brick or stone. 

There can be no doubt that the housing situation is 
distressing. Of the 4,165,253 inhabitants of the dev- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 97 

astated zone on May 1, 1921, 252,603 were living in 
wooden barraques, 82,717 in houses classed as semi- 
provisional, 159,214 in provisional houses of wood, and 
103,553 in provisional houses of durable material. 
Here and there neat fencing, well-kept gardens and 
flower beds, fresh paint, and dainty curtains at the 
windows testify to the taste, perhaps also to the pros- 
perity, of the occupants, but the overwhelming mass 
of the temporary houses are unsightly structures void 
of paint, shabby in appearance, destitute of even 
primitive conveniences, and crowded to repletion with 
the men, women, and children for whom they are as 
yet the only home. The situation is at its worst in 
the smaller towns, in cities which, like Albert, were 
almost completely wrecked, and on the outskirts of 
larger cities where the very poor have congregated, but 
it is bad everywhere. 

Bad as it is, however, it is better than it was. 
Although 599,087 persons in the devastated zone were 
on May 1, 1921, living in temporary houses, 1,573,080 
were at the same date living in houses that had been 
repaired; while of the remaining population of 2,172,- 
167 far the larger number were lodged either in build- 
ings that had received little or no injury or in new 
buildings erected on new sites. The replacement of 
houses totally destroyed had, unfortunately, made 
small progress, only 9,140 out of a total of 293,039 
having been replaced at the date named; but 182,682 
houses out of a total of 435,961 classed as seriously 
injured had been provisionally repaired. Account must 
also be taken of the very large number of permanent 
houses of brick, stone, concrete, or cement, running 
into the thousands in the aggregate, which have been 



98 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

erected by manufacturing or mining corporations and 
the railways for the use of their employees. The fact 
that rebuilding is inseparably bound up with the ques- 
tion of the settlement of claims to indemnity for war 
damages, while not an excuse for negligence in pro- 
viding temporary shelter, is another factor in the prob- 
lem of which account must be taken. 

It cannot be denied that the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions has from the first devoted much more 
time and energy to the reconstruction of industrial 
establishments than it has given to the reconstruction 
of houses. Severely as this policy has been criticized, 
and distressing as have been its consequences in per- 
sonal and domestic discomfort, there is nevertheless 
something to be said in its defense. Given the situa- 
tion which obtained in the invaded departments at the 
close of hostilities, housing was not the first or most 
important consideration. Before material of any kind 
could be gotten into or out of the region, the main lines 
of railway and the main highways must be restored. 
Until mines and factories were reestablished there could 
be no revival of industry, no employment for returning 
industrial workers, no near-by market for the farmers. 
Before the farmer could safely plow his field, put a 
spade into his garden, or replant his orchard or vine- 
yard his land must be grubbed over for unexploded 
shells and grenades, barbed-wire entanglements lifted, 
trenches and shell holes filled and leveled, and the 
debris of war removed. It was inevitable, it would 
have been inevitable even if money in unlimited 
amount had been available, that under these circum- 
stances housing should wait until the fundamental 
economic life of the devastated regions had been some- 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RECONSTRUCTION 99 

what reestablished, and that the returning population 
should be left for a time to make such shift as it could. 
Now that the restoration of industry and agriculture 
is well advanced and the restoration of transport nearly 
complete, the serious problem of housing need no 
longer be neglected. 

The following figures, compiled to May 1, 1921, 
show in various other directions what had been accom- 
plished and what remained to be done. 

Of the population of 4,690,183 found in the devas- 
tated zone in 1914, 4,165,253, or 88 per cent., had re- 
turned.^ Municipal life had been resumed in all but 
forty of the 3,256 communes in which it had been 
suspended. Public instruction had been resumed in 
6,830 out of 7,271 primary schools, in 74 out of 79 
secondary or higher schools, and in all of the 23 com- 
mercial or professional schools. Of the post offices, 
1,284 out of 1,292, and of telephone stations, 31,431 out 
of 34,716, had been reopened and 2,342 communes had 
telegraphic service. 

In the reconstitution of the soil, 2,934,128 hectares 
had been cleared of explosives, and 2,787,120 hectares 
were free of explosives, trenches, and barbed wire. 
21,370,800 tons of munitions had been destroyed, 239,- 
666,481 cubic metres of trenches out of 333,000,000 
cubic metres had been filled, and 276,849,242 square 
metres of barbed wire entanglements out of a total of 
373,000,000 square metres had been lifted. Of a total 
of 29,851 wells destroyed and 91,257 injured, 52,017 
had been put in condition and 4,249 had been con- 
structed. 

The number of communes in which boundary lines 

*See Appendix D. 



100 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

had required reestablishment was 1,637, while 400 
communes had asked for some readjustment of their 
territory and 222 communes had requested both the 
readjustment of territory and the relocation of bound- 
aries. In 843 communes the cadastral plans ^ had 
been destroyed, and some 30,000 drawings and tracings 
were required by the work of replacement. Of the 
52,734 kilometres of highways needing restoration, 
13,481 kilometres had been completed and the re- 
mainder more or less repaired. In addition 2,945 
bridges had been temporarily or definitively replaced. 

Never in history have a people and their government 
accomplished so great a task in so short a time. 

The provisions of the law of war damages of April, 
1919, applied to the French colonies and protectorates 
as well as to the pre-war departments of France, but 
the conditions under which the application was to be 
made effective were left for later determination. In 
March, 1920, the law became operative, with certain 
necessary changes of detail, in all the colonies and pro- 
tectorates except Tunis and Morocco. In September 
its principal provisions were also extended to the three 
departments of the Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Moselle 
which had been formed out of the territory recovered 
from Germany in Alsace and Lorraine. A similar ex- 
tension has, in general, been given to all the later 
important modifications which the law of 1919 has 
undergone. 

*The cadastre is a public record containing drawings and details 
of the real estate of a commune, and used for purposes of taxation. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 

The restoration of transport is the most brilliant 
exploit in the history of reconstruction in France. 
From the nature of the case the railways could not 
withdraw in the face of invasion, and while rolling 
stock, records, and personnel were evacuated as the 
German armies advanced, the roads themselves were 
under obligation to continue operations to the fullest 
extent possible throughout the whole period of the 
war. At the end of the war,^ moreover, they were 
called upon to handle the immense volume of traffic 
due to demobilization and the demands of general 
economic reconstruction at the very moment when 
they must also begin to rebuild. The success with 
which the two railway systems which serve the in- 
vaded area coped with the task merits the highest 
praise. In spite of unparalleled losses in rails, road-^ 
bed, bridges, tunnels, stations, and equipment, with 
the material that remained usable after the war worn 
to the limit of safety by unprecedented usage, and 
with difficult problems of credit, labor, and engineering 
to solve, all of the main lines and branches have been 
restored, most of the local lines are in operation, the 
replacement of stations and other structures is well 
advanced, freight and passenger service has been re- 

101 



102 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

established on approximately the same scale as before 
the war, and schedules of departure and arrival are 
generally maintained. In addition to the railways, 
most of the canals have resumed operations and most 
of the main highways have been restored to their pre- 
war condition. 

The railways of France are divided for administra- 
tive purposes into two classes, those of general and 
those of local interest. Those of general interest are 
comprised in six great systems, each of which serves in 
the main a particular section of the country. Of these 
systems two, the Nord and the Est, both radiating 
from Paris toward the frontiers of Belgium, Luxem- 
bourg, and Alsace and Lorraine, traverse the devas- 
tated departments, and are consequently the only ones 
that will be particularly dealt with here. The rail- 
ways of local interest comprise a large number of short 
lines, some of standard and others of narrow gauge, 
some using steam and others electricity, some operated 
as transportation lines pure and simple and others as 
adjuncts to mining or manufacturing enterprises. 
Taken together, the general and local lines constitute a 
network which covers all parts of the invaded area. 

Both the location and the grouping of the French 
railways have been determined by military as well as 
economic considerations. Long before the war of 1914 
an elaborate system of military administration and 
control had been worked out which embraced every 
detail of operation and personnel. Immediately upon 
mobilization, accordingly, all the railway systems of 
the country passed under the control of the military 
authorities. Two zones were recognized, that of the 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 103 

army and that of the interior, the railways of the 
former being under the immediate direction of the 
commander-in-chief while those of the latter were 
under the direction of the Minister of War. The line 
of demarcation between the two zones, however, was 
determined by military events, and the general limits 
of the zones accordingly changed repeatedly as the war 
went on. 

The magnitude of the task which devolved upon the 
government in the matter of transport led eventually 
to important administrative changes. In November, 
1916, a director-general of transport was appointed 
under the Ministry of War, with supervision of all 
matters relating to transport by railways, inland water- 
ways, and sea. The needs of commerce and industry 
as well as those of the army dictated the change. 
Hardly had the new director-general been appointed, 
however, when he was replaced, in December, by an 
under-secretariat of state for transport, with a juris- 
diction expanded to include maritime ports, roads, 
automobiles, railways of local interest, and establish- 
ments using water power or distributing electrical 
power. In May, 1917, the entire civil and military 
personnel employed in transport was also placed under 
the general control of this under-secretariat. So much 
of the work of administration as fell within the army 
zone was delegated to a director, but the general au- 
thority remained with the Ministry of War. 

In September, 1917, the whole system of control 
was transferred to the Minister of Public Works and 
Transport. As jBinally reorganized in July, 1918, the 
jurisdiction of the ministry embraced not only trans- 



104 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

port by rail, rivers, canals, and sea, but also the initia- 
tion of new transport enterprises and the maintenance 
and reestablishment of traffic. The immediate direc- 
tion of military transport continued to rest, by delega- 
tion from the ministry, with a director-general, with 
whom was associated a commission for each of the 
main railway systems, while on general questions the 
general managers (chefs d' exploitation) of the systems 
were regularly called into consultation. The decree 
of February 2, 1919, returning to the railway companies 
the direction of their lines, did not alter this adminis- 
trative system so far as military transport was con- 
cerned. The railways simply came again under the 
operation of a law of 1888 which bound them to give 
absolute priority to the transport of troops, military 
supplies, and goods of public necessity. A military 
representative continued to direct military transport 
and the reconstruction of such lines as the army 
undertook to restore. 

For the railways the beginning of hostilities was 
dramatic. At about two p'clock on the afternoon of 
July 31, 1914, the dispatch of trains from German 
territory across the French frontier suddenly ceased.^ 
Telegraphic inquiries brought the reply from German 
officials that railway service between the two countries 
had been definitively suspended. At about three 

* The data which follow are drawTi, unless otherwise indicated, from 
the Rapports du conseil d' administration, 1915-1921, of the Chemin 
de Fer de I'Est; M. Peschaud, Les Chemins de fer pendant la 
guerre 1914-1918, issued as a special number of the Revue Generate 
des Chemins de Fer; C. Javary, L' Effort du reseau du nord pen' 
dant et apres la guerre; and M. Pellarin, Destructions operees sur 
le reseau de Vest pendant la guerre de 1914-1918. I am also in- 
debted to M. Javary for numerous facts regarding the Nord system. 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 105 

o'clock the rails and telegraph lines near the frontier 
were cut. A few minutes before six o'clock the Est 
company received orders from the Minister of War to 
prepare to move covering troops, and in the course of 
the next four days 302 troop trains were sent toward 
the frontier. Passenger and freight service, except 
local freight, continued, but the Est company began 
the withdrawal of its rolling stock, including 124 loco- 
motives, from exposed points, freight cars were un- 
loaded, emergency trafl&c connections were arranged, 
and the system was put upon a war footing. At twenty 
minutes past four on the afternoon of August 1 came 
the order for mobilization, to take effect the next day. 
At six o'clock all time schedules were suspended and 
military schedules took their place. 

The immensity of the labor which now devolved 
upon the railways can be appreciated only through 
figures. The transportation by rail of the effectives 
of an army corps required an average of 80 trains and 
4,000 cars. In the twenty days which intervened be- 
tween mobilization and concentration 42 army corps 
in 168,000 cars were moved toward the front.^ This 
was in addition to the provision which had to be made 
for the transportation of men to their various places 
of mobilization and for the movement of colonial 
troops after their arrival in France. Between August 5 
and August 21 the Est system moved 4,064 trains of 
troops and material, the maximum effort being on 
August 9-11, when 388,395 men and 384 trains were 
handled. All of these trains reached their destinations 
on time. The total of military trains of all kinds for 

* These figures cover the six railway systems. 



106 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the month of August was about 12,300. While this 
movement was going on civilians, tourists, and for- 
eigners were crowding the ordinary trains in a hurried 
flight before invasion, and some 40,000 foreign work- 
men, chiefly Italians, were transported from the indus- 
trial and mining centers of Briey and Longwy toward 
the west and center of France. 

The Nord system between August 2 and August 5 
handled 3,320 troop trains carrying 870,000 men, 19,- 
000 officers, 277,000 horses, and 70,800 cannon, cais- 
sons, and wagons. From October 1 to October 13 more 
than 1,271 troop trains were moved. The Champagne 
offensive in the fall of 1915 called for more than 2,000 
troop trains; yet even these figures were surpassed 
during the battle of the Somme, in 1917, when the 
number of troop trains reached 6,768. In the retreat at 
Charleroi in August, 1914, the Nord and Est systems 
handled each from 120 to 170 trains a day. For the 
defense of the Belgian border and the control of access 
to the sea, after the German attack at Yser, 72 divi- 
sions in 6,000 trains were transported. The total num- 
ber of soldiers carried by the Nord lines in the course of 
the war was more than 60,000,000. 

The movement of food and hospital trains and the 
transportation of officers and soldiers on leave entailed 
labors only second to those of transporting the armies 
and their supplies. Between August 6 and August 19, 
1914, the Nord system handled more than 1,000 food 
trains, and it had moved more than 60,000 trains of 
food and munitions by the end of 1915. In 1916 the 
food trains numbered 51,370, in 1917 44,113, and in 
the first half of 1918 22,292. The Est system moved 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 107 

5,287 food trains in 1914, 29,017 in 1915, 33,152 in 
1916, 28,006 in 1917 and 23,032 in the first six months 
of 1918. The smaller figures for 1917 and 1918 are 
accounted for by changes in classification, not by de- 
crease in tonnage. Hospital trains, each comprising 
from 21 to 39 cars, numbered for the Nord 3,007 in 
1914, 17,006 in 1915, and from 15,000 to 15,800 for 
each of the next three years. The Est moved 792 such 
trains in 1914, 10,736 in 1915, and an average of 7,122 
for each of the years 1916-1918. The number of trains 
exclusively for permissionnaires rose, on the Est lines, 
from 3,750 in 1915 to 34,700 in 1917 and 30,600 in 
1918; on the lines of the Nord, from about 4,200 in 
1915 to 28,000 in 1917 and 18,800 in 1918. 

Precise figures showing the volume of railway traffic 
involved in the evacuation of the civilian population 
appear to be lacking, as are also those for the move- 
ment of troops during the period of demobilization. 
The effort of the Est system in evacuating civilians and 
foreign laborers has already been referred to. The 
Nord system in ten days moved toward Paris more 
than 1,500,000 persons from the regions served by its 
lines. The demobilization of the French forces went 
on at the rate of about 600,000 per month. To this is 
to be added the movement of American and British 
forces to their ports of embarkation, and the transport 
to central depots of vast quantities of military supplies 
from the war zone. 

In a report submitted to the President of the Repub- 
lic on March 13, 1919, the Minister of Public Works 
and Transport, A. Claveille, summarized the losses 
which the railways had sustained. On the Nord and 



108 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the Est systems taken together 2,901 kilometres of 
double track and 5,600 kilometres of single track had 
been either destroyed or injured. The figures repre- 
sented about one-third of the total mileage operated in 
1913. A similar fate had befallen 1,510 bridges, 12 
tunnels, 590 buildings, and 150 storehouses. The re- 
pair shops of the Nord at Hellemmes, near Lille, had 
been stripped of tools and machinery, and the shops at 
Tergnier, Lens, Amiens, Epernay, Roye, and Mohon 
had been rendered useless either permanently or for a 
long period. All of the locomotive roundhouses in 
the zone of German occupation were wholly or par- 
tially in ruins. The entire system of signals had dis- 
appeared, all the switch towers required reconstruction, 
and telephone and telegraph wires were a mass of 
debris. 

Of the two systems, that of the Nord suffered the 
most. Practically all of the bridges, viaducts, tunnels, 
and towers were in ruins. Not only were superstruc- 
tures wrecked or demolished, but foundations of all 
kinds were loosened or destroyed by the systematic use 
of explosives. To the debris of ruined bridges and via- 
ducts which cumbered streams and valleys had in some 
cases been added locomotives and cars, thrown into the 
wreckage after the explosion or carried down with the 
structure when it collapsed. Of many stations hardly 
anything was left standing. A mass of tangled metal 
marked the site of the station at Lens, the station at 
Montdidier was swept clean, a few feet of covered 
platform were all that survived at Noyon, a fragment 
of ruined wall was the only part left standing at Laon, 
and the large train shed of steel and glass at Valen- 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 109 

ciennes was badly torn and the interior of the station 
wrecked. Great sections of railway had been blown 
out or torn to pieces, rails twisted, ties burned, switches 
destroyed or rendered useless, and wrecked locomotives 
and cars scattered over the lines. Tunnels had their 
entrances closed and sections of their roofs destroyed 
by explosives, water tanks were gone, and terminals 
were in ruins. The losses of the system included 8 
large viaducts, 811 bridges large and small, not count- 
ing culverts, 5 tunnels, 583 kilometres of double track, 
529 kilometres of single track, some thousands of kilo- 
metres of switches and secondary lines, 338 stations, 
and 115 water tanks.^ 

Numerous bridges on the Est system were destroyed 
by the French forces in 1914, with the object of im- 
peding the German advance. The foundations of the 
structures were not injured, however, and the neces- 
sary replacements were easily effected by the Germans 
and later, in some cases, by the railway company itself. 
The more serious losses came after the battle of the 
Marne. Of a total of 5,027 kilometres in the Est sys- 
tem, an average of only 3,800 kilometres was operated 
from 1915 to 1918. The losses to track included 310 
kilometres of single track destroyed or displaced, and 
1,475 kilometres of single track injured either system- 
atically or as a result of shell fire. The roadbed was 
extensively injured by the construction of trenches, 
shelters, and barbed wire obstructions, by bombard- 
ment, and by exploding mines, the latter leaving cra- 
ters measuring in some instances from ten to twenty 
metres in diameter. 262 covered passageways had 

*M. Javary, L'Effort du Reseau du Nord, 89. 



110 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

their walls or roofs broken down or their foundations 
undermined. Of the tunnels, eight were destroyed, and 
two which had been repaired by the Germans accom- 
modated only a single track and had to be rebuilt. At 
Perthes, near Rethel, more than 70,000 cubic metres 
of debris had to be removed before the portions of the 
tunnel roof which remained could be reached ; while at 
Maure, near Challerange, the quantity of debris to be 
removed was estimated at from 175,000 to 200,000 
cubic metres. The rails had completely disappeared 
from thirty kilometres of line between Reims and 
Laon (a total distance of 52 kilometres), 20 kilometres 
of the line between Reims and Charleville (a total 
distance of 88 kilometres), 20 kilometres of the line 
between Bazancourt, near Reims, and Challerange (a 
total distance of 53 kilometres), and on many kilo- 
metres of the lines between Verdun and Sedan, Nancy 
and Metz, Nancy and Chateau-Salins, and the line 
from Paris to Strasbourg. Switches and signals, with 
all their appliances and connections, had almost every- 
where disappeared, water tanks had been blown up, 
shattered, or overthrown, and nearly all of the hy- 
draulic cranes were gone. 

Freight and passenger stations on the Est system had 
either been leveled with the ground or badly damaged, 
and about 150 houses for watchmen or crossing tenders 
had been annihilated. The houses and living quarters 
provided for employees of the company at Baroncourt, 
Andun, and Conflans had been rendered uninhabitable, 
storehouses at Reims, Verdun, and Amagne had been 
wholly or in part destroyed, and the large locomotive 
works at fipemay had suffered from aerial bombard- 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 111 

ment. Telegraph and telephone lines were in ruins, 
and tools, machinery, furnishings, and movable prop- 
erty of all kinds had been destroyed or removed. The 
loss of some 12,000 freight cars which passed into 
German hands was in part made good by an allotment 
of cars supplied from English railways. 

The cost of restoring the Est system to its pre-war 
condition was estimated in 1919 at 350,000,000 francs 
for roadway and buildings, 210,000,000 francs for roll- 
ing stock, furnishings, tools, and supplies, and 80,000,- 
000 francs for other expenses: a total of 640,000,000 
francs. Revised estimates in 1920 raised these figures 
to 360,000,000 francs for roadway and structures, 437,- 
000,000 francs for rolling stock, etc., and 319,000,000 
francs for other expenses: a total of 1,116,000,000 
francs. Increased cost of labor and material later 
swelled the estimate for roadway and structures to 
470,000,000 francs, at the same time that the estimates 
under the other two heads declined to 390,000,000 
francs and 300,000,000 francs respectively. The total 
estimated cost of replacement, however, rose to 1,160,- 
000,000 francs. 

The work of reconstructing the railways, never dis- 
continued even while the war was going on, was pushed 
with amazing rapidity as soon as the war pressure was 
relieved. On October 27, 1918, two weeks before the 
armistice, a passenger train from Calais on the Nord 
system reached St. Andre, in the suburbs of Lille. 
Twelve hours had been required for a journey which 
now consumes two or three, but the line was open. St. 
Quentin welcomed its first pasenger train on November 
28, and by the end of December trains were running to 



112 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Cambrai, Douai, and Valenciennes. On New Year's 
day, 1919, the first passenger train made its triumphal 
entry into the central station at Lille. A law on Jan- 
uary 10 authorized the Minister of Public Works and 
Transport to take such steps as might be necessary to 
restore all railway lines to a condition equivalent to 
that which they had on January 1, 1914, a credit of 
600,000,000 francs being opened for the purpose. By 
the middle of February, three months after the armi- 
stice, 595 kilometres of the Nord system in the invaded 
area were provisionally in operation ; by the middle of 
March 532 kilometres had been added. 

The bridge over the Scarpe river at d'Athies, be- 
tween Arras and Lens, had been breached by explosion 
to a width of 58 metres and its two supporting piers 
had been destroyed. The work of rebuilding the bridge 
in concrete was begun on November 15, 1918, and was 
completed in sixty days. The long viaduct at St. 
Benin, near Cateau, on the line from Paris to Liege, 
had had 175 metres of its length blown out; at the end 
of August, 1919, after four months of labor and the 
removal of 16,000 cubic metres of ruined masonry, the 
viaduct was restored. The viaduct at Blangy, near 
Hirson, had been destroyed by the French in 1914, 
rebuilt in steel and concrete by the Germans, and 
again destroyed when the Germans retired. The prob- 
lem of reconstruction here was rendered difficult by the 
necessity of removing huge masses of masonry and 
metal, but at the end of August, 1919, the viaduct was 
ready for use. The long tunnel at Vauxaillon, between 
Soissons and Laon, was destroyed at both heads and in 
the middle by the Germans during their retreat in 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 113 

1917. It had been largely reconstructed by the railway 
company when in March, 1918, the Germans again 
advanced. The Laon head was then destroyed by the 
French, but the Germans repaired it, only to destroy it 
again, together with the Soissons head, when they 
finally withdrew. The work of reconstruction was im- 
peded by severe weather and by the torn state of the 
ground in consequence of repeated explosions, but on 
May 15, 1919, less than six months after the armistice, 
service through the tunnel was resumed. 

On September 15, 1919, the Minister of Public 
Works and Transport was able to report that of a total 
of 583 kilometres of double track and 529 kilometres 
of single-track line on the Nord system requiring re- 
construction at the date of the armistice, 577 kilo- 
metres of double track and all of the single-track lines 
had been put in condition by September 1. At the 
same date all but four of the 333 destroyed or damaged 
stations had been replaced with provisional or perma- 
nent structures. The structures other than stations 
and culverts injured or destroyed numbered 816, of 
which 269 were small works of masonry, 352 small 
works with metal roofs, 210 large structures, and five 
tunnels. Of these, 204 small structures and two tun- 
nels had been completed, 269 small and three large 
structures and two tunnels were in course of recon- 
struction, one long viaduct {St. Benin) was in use, and 
three other viaducts of 213, 98, and 119 metres respec- 
tively in length would be completed by September 15. 

On October 1 only a single kilometre of double-track 
line on the Nord system remained to be rebuilt, and 
all but 43.9 kilometres of the system were in operation. 



114 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Two additional stations had been built, 39 other struc- 
tures were in process of restoration, and only two 
tunnels remained to be cleared. On November 1 only 
15 kilometres of double track and 12 kilometres of 
single-track line, made up of short sections in which 
bridges or other structures were being restored, re- 
mained to be operated; all the stations had been 
reopened, 49 additional structures had been completed, 
the number of bridges to be replaced had been reduced 
from 601 to 347, while of the five tunnels only one 
remained to be cleared.^ 

The reconstruction of the Est system, while less 
rapid, was hardly less remarkable. Of the 930 kilo- 
metres of double track and 201 kilometres of single- 
track line out of use at the time of the armistice, 789 
kilometres of double track and 152 kilometres of single 
track had been restored to use on September 1, 1919. 
All but 29 of the destroyed stations had been replaced 
permanently or temporarily. The structures other 
than stations destroyed numbered 367 ; of this number 
1 viaduct, 9 bridges, and 13 other structures had 
been restored. On October 1 the number of kilometres 
of double track in operation had risen to 848, the 
number of kilometres of single track to 159, five addi- 
tional stations had been opened, and 13 bridges and 
17 other structures had been replaced. The report of 
the Minister of Public Works and Transport on No- 
vember 1 showed all but 94 kilometres of double track 
and 7 kilometres of single track in operation, all 

*The reports of the Minister of Public Works and Transport for 
September 15, October 3, and November 1, 1919, are reprinted in the 
Bulletin des Regions Ldberees for September 29, October 27, and 
November 17. 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 115 

but two of the stations replaced, 46 out of 214 bridges 
rebuilt, and five tunnels available for single-track use. 
The bridge across the Marne at Chateau-Thierry was 
completed in April, 1920, and three bridges across the 
Aisne and nine across the Meuse had been replaced. 

These are impressive results, but they are neverthe- 
less far from telling the whole story. Neither the Nord 
nor the Est system was content to restore its property 
to the condition in which it had been before the war; 
they also planned for the future. Those who directed 
the construction foresaw that in the industrial rehabili- 
tation of the invaded departments factories would be 
enlarged and improved, the output of the mines in- 
creased, and the volume of traffic of all kinds, both 
within the borders of France and between France, Bel- 
gium, Luxembourg, and Germany, greatly augmented. 
To care for this anticipated increase meant larger and 
better equipment, improved terminal facilities, and 
more adequate arrangements at frontier points for the 
exchange of traffic with foreign lines. The railways 
had also to consider the readjustment of working con- 
ditions due to the application of an eight-hour law for 
employees. 

The policy of the Nord company is especially inter- 
esting at this point. Before the war the Nord, although 
not the largest, was perhaps the best equipped and 
best administered railway in France. In traffic re- 
sources it was peculiarly rich, its lines serving the 
mining and manufacturing districts of the Nord and 
Pas-de-Calais departments and the Channel ports of 
Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, and Dunkerque, and at the 
same time affording the most direct communication 



116 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

with Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and northwest- 
ern Germany. 

As soon as the principles upon which indemnities for 
war losses were to be paid had been determined, an 
understanding was reached with the government re- 
garding reconstruction. The government undertook to 
repay the actual losses on the basis of values in 1914, 
plus the cost of replacement, but with the understand- 
ing that the company was to be left free to rebuild its 
system with a view to the needs of future traffic. Fur- 
ther to facilitate this arrangement, the credits voted in 
payment of indemnities were carried in a special ac- 
count separate from the annual budgets, any additional 
cost due to expansion being borne by the company 
itself. The system of separate accounting applied also 
to the Est properties. 

The next step was to enlarge the land holdings of 
the company. At all important points extensive pur- 
chases of adjoining properties were made, the sinistres 
being relieved, by direct sale, of further controversies 
with the cantonal commissions. The acquisitions were 
large enough to permit of the rearrangement and en- 
largement of tracks, yards, stations, and general termi- 
nal facilities sufficient for the probable needs of from 
fifteen to thirty years. Some important changes in 
location were also made, the most notable of these 
changes being at Lille, the principal railway center of 
northern France. Before the war all the freight traffic 
of Lille, whether from the south, the east, the north, or 
the west, was handled in a confined space on the 
eastern side of the city. In the process of reconstruc- 
tion the entire freight service was transferred bodily to 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 117 

a large and much more convenient site west of the 
city, where the terminal facilities installed are now 
perhaps the best to be found anywhere in Europe, and 
where the opportunity for expansion is practically un- 
limited. Similar changes, less radical and imposing 
but with equal prevision of the future, were made at 
other important points. 

In the matter of houses for its employees the Nord 
company has shown both energy and thoughtfulness. 
Some thousands of permanent houses of attractive and 
varied design, solidly built of brick, stone, or cement 
and equipped with modern sanitary facilities, have 
been erected at Lille, Lens, Arras, Amiens, Compiegne, 
Cambrai, Laon, Hirson, Soissons, and other points, and 
more are under construction. One of the largest quar- 
ters (cite) is at Lille, where an extensive village has 
been constructed to the west of the new freight termi- 
nal, again with ample opportunity for growth. The 
employees' quarter at Laon is also extensive. In addi- 
tion, the living quarters which are incorporated in most 
of the new railway stations are larger and better than 
those which the war swept away, not to mention 
the improved artistic appearance of the new stations 
themselves. 

An inspection of the main lines and more important 
branches of the Nord and Est systems in the summer 
and fall of 1921 showed highly satisfactory conditions. 
Far the larger portion of the lines is stone ballasted, 
rails are heavy, and switches and signaling apparatus 
complete. Provisional ballasting was being replaced 
by permanent work, and temporary bridges were giv- 
ing way rapidly to permanent structures of steel, con- 



118 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Crete, and stone. A very large amount of work in track- 
laying, surfacing, and general cleaning up was in prog- 
ress at terminals and junction points; freight sheds, 
platforms, and roundhouses were being built, numerous 
cranes, both traveling and stationary, had been placed, 
and many new concrete water tanks were in use. Many 
of the passenger stations are still temporary structures, 
but all of the larger stations that were capable of repair 
have either been put in usable condition or are in 
process of restoration, and scores of new stations have 
been erected. The new stations, many of them in con- 
crete or cement, embody attractive design and im- 
proved facihties for personnel, passengers, and lug- 
gage. A number of well-appointed railway hotels are 
in operation, and restaurant and buffet service has been 
generally reestablished. Scores of attractive houses 
for crossing tenders have also been erected and tele- 
phone stations restored. Through express service with 
sleeping and dining cars has been everywhere reestab- 
lished, and while passenger coaches, especially those of 
the third class, are generally inferior and trains badly 
overcrowded, gratifying progress is being made in the 
introduction of large corridor coaches of all classes and 
more powerful locomotives. 

Of the numerous railways classed as lines of local 
interest 2,385 kilometres were injured or destroyed, 
467 bridges or other structures were ruined, and 439 
bridges or structures injured. The work of restoration 
naturally made much slower progress here than upon 
the large systems, partly because capital was lacking, 
partly because the numerous companies involved could 
not well combine in a common program, and partly 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 119 

because the reconstruction of main lines was a neces- 
sary preliminary to obtaining material for the small 
ones. In August, 1919, the supervision of the under- 
taking was attached to the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions and intrusted to the directors-general of the 
ministry in the several departments, these oflScials 
being themselves immediately responsible, it will be 
remembered, to the prefects. By May 1, 1921, 773 
kilometres of line had been completely restored, 1,247 
kilometres had been more or less repaired, 191 bridges 
had been provisionally reconstructed, and the restora- 
tion of 333 bridges was complete. On June 13, 1921, 
the further direction of reconstruction was transferred 
to the Ministry of Public Works. 

A special interest attached to the hundreds of kilo- 
metres of light railway which had been laid down for 
military purposes in every part of the invaded area. It 
was evident that large numbers of these lines, placed 
as they had been for military uses only without regard 
either to private property or to the convenience of the 
civil population, had only to be removed. Many of 
the lines, on the other hand, were obviously useful for 
the transport of material for reconstruction, the re- 
moval of debris, and the maintenance of local connec- 
tions with the main railway systems. They offered, in 
short, a supplementary means of transport of which 
advantage ought to be taken. 

In February, 1919, the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions was accorded by the military authorities the 
control of some of the most important of these lines. 
A special operating force was organized, wagons, loco- 
motives, and tractors were purchased or taken over 



120 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

from the army, and the exploitation of the lines was 
systematically begun. For purposes of operation the 
lines were presently grouped in six systems — Com- 
piegne, St. Quentin, Laon-Soissons, Chalons-Reims, 
Verdun, and Vouziers. A local system was also organ- 
ized at Reims. Lines were relocated and rebuilt, con- 
nections established with railways and canals, and a 
regular service for passengers and freight inaugurated. 
By August 31, 1919, 1,525 kilometres of light railway 
were in operation, 230 locomotives and tractors and 
3,346 cars were available, and the freight tonnage for 
the month of August had reached 230,915 tons. In 
October, 1921, four lines of standard gauge and eleven 
lines of narrow gauge connecting with the Nord sys- 
tem, and seven narrow-gauge lines in the system of the 
Est, were being operated by the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions. 

The war destroyed or rendered useless 1,036 kilo- 
metres of canals and navigable waterways, together 
with 1,120 bridges, locks, or other structures. The 
heaviest losses were in the departments of the Nord 
and the Pas-de-Calais, where 750 kilometres were put 
out of use, and in the Ardennes, where 179.5 kilometres 
were destroyed. By the middle of September commu- 
nication between Belgium and Paris had been re- 
opened, and the larger part of the system of inland 
waterways which connects Paris and Dunkerque was 
available. TraflSc by river and canal between Paris 
and the northeastern departments had been resumed, 
and coal from the Saar and Ruhr basins was moving 
into France by this route. By October from twenty to 
thirty boats a day were moving through the Mame- 
Rhine canal, the connection between Paris and the 



THE RESTORATION OF TRANSPORT 121 

Nord and Pas-de-Calais had been completed, and coal 
from the Charleroi region had begun to move toward 
Paris. By November 1 only 100 kilometres of water- 
ways remained to be cleared of obstructions, rebuilt, 
and dredged. On May 1, 1921, all but 72 kilometres of 
navigable waterways, of which 52 kilometres were in 
the Ardennes, had been restored. A few short sections 
of canal which were ready for use were not actually in 
operation in 1921 because of the extraordinary drought 
which prevailed during that year. A new step of great 
importance is the proposed electrification of large parts 
of the inland waterway system, and the work of in- 
stallation has already been begun. 

The restoration of highways, of which 52,734 kilo- 
metres needed to be repaired, has not kept pace with 
the reconstruction of railways and waterways, but 
there has nevertheless been substantial progress. By 
May 1, 1921, 13,481 kilometres of road had been put in 
condition and 30,114 kilometres had been more or less 
repaired. The number of bridges permanently or tem- 
porarily repaired, in the former case often with marked 
improvements in plan or construction, was 2,945 out 
of a total of 3,220 which had to be restored. Nearly 
5,000,000 tons of material had been used in road and 
bridge work since the armistice. 

The strenuous and unparalleled labors of three years 
can be summed up in a single sentence. With the ex- 
ception of the highways, the transport system of dev- 
astated France has been practically restored. Some 
provisional work has yet to be replaced by permanent 
construction and the final touches of beautification 
have yet to be added, but traffic of all kinds is moving 
substantially as before the war. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 

It will probably not have escaped notice that in the 
account just given of the restoration of the Nord and 
Est raiUvay systems, administrative control by the 
government plays an almost inappreciable part. As a 
matter of fact government administration had very 
little to do with the process. Aside from financial aid 
and the assurance of the ultimate reimbursement of 
their war losses, the arrangements made with the gov- 
ernment left the railways practically to themselves. 
They found their own working capital, outside of gov- 
ernment payments, by contracting new loans and 
drawing upon their reserve funds. They assembled 
and distributed their own labor and materials, placed 
orders for equipment at home or abroad practically at 
their own discretion, and reconstructed their systems 
according to their own views of present and future 
needs. The necessary expert service was drawn from 
the ranks of their own personnel, and while the evalu- 
ation of their losses was an elaborate undertaking, their 
arrangements with the government freed them from 
time-consuming controversies with cantonal commis- 
sions. No question arose as to whether or not indem- 
nities were to be reemployed. The railways, in short, 
had a definite and concrete task to perform, and no 
time was wasted in setting about it. 

122 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 123 

In the reconstruction of manufactures and other 
forms of industry, on the other hand, the interposition 
of the government was everywhere apparent and vital. 
An elaborate administrative system, operating almost 
from the beginning with energy and intelligent re- 
sourcefulness, came ultimately to embrace within its 
scope most of the important details of industrial recon- 
struction, and at the same time helped the process of 
restoration to go on with rapid strides. It was of 
course true that industrial establishments, accustomed 
to keeping of records and accounts, were able to pro- 
ceed rapidly with the evaluation of their damages, and 
that their financial resources in reserves and borrowing 
power were indefinitely greater than those of the farm- 
ers; but there is little reason to believe that the indus- 
trial revival which has taken place throughout the 
invaded area would have made the remarkable prog- 
ress which it has made if the government had not 
supplied both a coordinating machinery and a driving 
force. If the restoration of the railways is an illustra- 
tion of reconstruction achieved primarily through the 
effort of the corporations themselves, ihdustrial recon- 
struction affords the best example of what could be 
done when corporations and government joined hands. 

Reference has already been made to the creation in 
August, 1917, of an office of industrial reccfnstitution, 
and to the various steps by which that office was 
eventually, in January, 1920, attached to the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions. The primary duty of the 
office, acting either directly or through the agency of 
other organizations to be formed for the purpose, was 
to purchase materials, tools, and other supplies neces- 



124 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

sary for the reestablishment of industrial enterprises, 
and to arrange for their equitable distribution. The 
distribution was to be made either on account or by 
the assignment on the part of the industrial sinistre of 
an equivalent portion of the indemnity for war dam- 
ages to which he would be entitled. Supplementary 
credits in aid of the undertaking were at the same time 
opened with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and 
Posts and Telegraphs. It was apparently the intention 
of the law that the service should devote itself mainly 
to providing material for reconstruction upon which 
the sinistres might draw according to their inclination 
or ability; but the fact that many industrial sinistres, 
in the period during which the settlement of their 
claims to damages was being considered, had little other 
resource upon which to call made the cession or distri- 
bution of material a function of great and increasing 
importance. 

Two dangers confronted the industrial sinistre. He 
might, because of the losses which he had sustained, 
become insolvent, or he might, in anticipation of an 
indemnity not yet adjudicated, overdraw his account 
and plunge himself into debt. In order to avoid both 
of these evils the office of industrial reconstitution 
undertook to make a summary examination of the 
losses sustained by each sinistre who applied for cred- 
its or material, and to determine provisionally a credit 
which, while less than the amount of indemnity 
claimed, would also probably not exceed the amount 
which the cantonal commission would allow. The law 
of July 5, 1917, provided for an evaluation of damages 
by experts acting under the authority of the prefects. 
Experts, however, were few and delay might be disas- 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 125 

trous. The office of industrial reconstitution accord- 
ingly accepted, as complying with the spirit of the law, 
such statement of losses submitted by the sinistre him- 
self as a representative of the office, following an exam- 
ination on the spot, could approve. One of the most 
practical and convincing proofs of loss was that 
afforded by pictures, and a photographic service was 
accordingly organized and placed at the disposal of 
sinistres. The clearing of debris, at the cost of the 
state, was also undertaken if the sinistre so desired. 

The office of industrial reconstitution further under- 
took to provide certain materials necessary for imme- 
diate use, such as tarred paper or canvas for temporary 
roofing or building, and other material, such as coal, 
whose distribution was controlled by the state; to re- 
cover and repair material taken away by the Germans ; 
to insure the proper execution of the law of war dam- 
ages of April 17, 1919, and of the later law of July 31, 
1920, providing for the issuance of provisional certifi- 
cates of damages and the payment of indemnities; and 
to supervise the definitive preparation of claims to 
indemnity. 

In order that the needs of industry in the various 
departments might be intelligently and sympathet- 
ically met and local effort stimulated, a policy of de- 
centralization was adopted. The liberated regions 
were divided into eleven sectors — Lille, Valenciennes, 
Laon, Maubeuge, Charleville, Nancy, Arras, Amiens, 
Compiegne, Reims, and Paris. Each sector except that 
of Paris was again divided into sub-sectors, the num- 
ber of such sub-sectors varying from one to seven 
according to the industrial importance of the sectors. 
Special coal-mining sectors were also created at Douai, 



126 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Briey, and Nancy. The jurisdiction of the Paris sector 
included the departments of Seine-et-Oise and Seine- 
et-Mame as well as that of the Seine. To the Paris 
sector was also committed, by ministerial decrees or 
by law, the consideration of questions of damages 
whose territorial location was unknown, industrial 
damages involving more than one department or oc- 
curring outside of the "liberated regions" as officially 
defined, and damages in Algiers, or in the colonies, or 
on the seacoast. The decision of certain general ques- 
tions relating to damages sustained by coal-mining 
companies also devolved upon the Paris sector. 

In addition to a chief executive officer and subordi- 
nate heads of various bureaux, there was formed in 
each sector and sub-sector a regional committee com- 
prising, besides administrative officials, representatives 
of chambers of commerce and of local industries. The 
regional committees were advisory bodies, presided 
over by the chiefs of the sectors and charged with the 
consideration of general questions submitted by the 
chiefs or by the members. Their most important 
function, however, was to stimulate local effort, to 
secure as large a use as possible of local material, local 
resources, and local labor, and to reduce or prevent 
local unemployment. A financial commission for the 
sector lent its aid in the preparation of the accounts of 
sinistres, and another commission examined the re- 
quests for provisional certificates of damages. In a 
number of sectors the publication of periodical bulle- 
tins of information was presently begun. 

It remained for the office of industrial reconstruction 
to give unity and direction to this scheme of sectors 
and regional committees, without at the same time 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 127 

impairing regional autonomy. The membership of the 
ofl&ce, under the law of August 6, 1917, comprised 
eight representatives of ministries and eight represen- 
tatives of commerce and industry, at least half of the 
latter being chosen from the invaded departments. 
Under the direction of the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions the office undertook to prepare and carry out 
general plans of reconstruction, to assemble and dis- 
tribute materials, to supply labor and transport, and to 
fix the prices at which materials should be furnished to 
sinistres. The administrative head of the office was 
the secretary-general, with headquarters at Paris. 

For the purpose of facilitating the acquisition and 
distribution of materials needed for reconstruction an 
agreement was concluded on October 4, 1917, under 
the authority of the law of August 6 of that year, 
between the Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, 
and Telegraphs and a private corporation known as 
the Comptoir Central d'Achats Industriels pour les 
Regions Envahies. This corporation, the capital of 
which was one million francs and which will be referred 
to hereafter as the Central Purchasing Agency, under- 
took to purchase materials, tools, and supplies of all 
kinds required by industrial sinistres and to distribute 
or assemble them under the direction of the office of 
industrial reconstruction. The handling of industrial 
materials furnished by the state or recovered from 
Germany was also intrusted to it. A commission of 
one per cent, was allowed on expenditures made on 
account of the state, and a further commission of one- 
half of one per cent, on the value of materials turned 
over to sinistres. 

Delivery of materials to sinistres was to be made by 



128 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the agency only where an agreement was entered into 
by the sinistre to reemploy the materials in the in- 
vaded departments, and with the further proviso, in 
the case of industries actually in operation, that the 
quantities of material asked for should not exceed 
what was normally needed for three months. Prices 
of material and other supplies were fixed in general at 
ten per cent, above cost in order to cover transport, 
handling, etc. Permission was also accorded to the 
corporation to buy and sell on its own account, but any 
profits in excess of five per cent, annually on the capi- 
tal stock were to go to the state. When the service 
which the agency undertook to render to the state had 
ended, the corporation would become wholly a private 
enterprise. 

A contract of similar character was made on May 19, 
1919, between the then Minister of Industrial Recon- 
struction and an association of industrials of the Lille 
sector, organized as the Comptoir Regional d'Achats 
with a capital of 250,000 francs. To this regional 
agency was also intrusted the liquidation of certain 
stocks of material left in British camps. 

The creation of the Central Purchasing Agency 
placed at the service of the industrial sinistre a com- 
mercial organization in touch with the market and 
financially interested in developing as large a volume 
of business as possible, but with its business methods 
and its profits strictly controlled. Technical commit- 
tees established by the agency worked in harmony 
with the technical services of the government, and an 
elaborate control of accounts was organized. From the 
beginning the plan worked well. OflSces and ware- 
houses of the agency were promptly established in all 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 129 

parts of the invaded area, and the systematic distribu- 
tion of material and supplies was energetically pushed. 
In practice all sinistres, whether industrials or not, 
benefited by the arrangement, the miscellaneous stocks 
carried by the agency offering facilities not easily ob- 
tained elsewhere.^ 

By the end oi 1921 the work for which the Central 
Purchasing Agency was created had been in the main 
performed, and the ofiices throughout the liberated 
regions were being closed and the remaining stocks dis- 
posed of. 

In order that the supply of material for industrial 
reconstruction might be regulated with some regard 
to necessity, requests were classified. Those which 
ought to be granted with the least possible delay — for 
example, a request for a motor for a shop which had 
everything else installed — were classed as of extreme 
urgency. Requests less pressing but of great impor- 
tance were classed as of primary urgency, and other 
important requests as of secondary urgency. Impor- 
tant pieces of work were sometimes declared by minis- 
terial order to be of primary or extreme urgency, and 
special efforts made to prosecute or complete them. 

A central depot of demountable houses, controlled 
by the office of industrial reconstruction, was estab- 
lished, and efforts were made to encourage the manu- 
facture of such houses and of building or industrial 
material in various parts of the invaded region. 
Houses were sold to industrial sinistres at one-half the 

* An advertisement of the agency in the Soisson sector in Sep- 
tember, 1921, listed among the articles for sale glassware, bedding, 
bricks, firewood, hardware, kitchen utensils, clothing, barbed wire, 
barraques in sections, stoves, lumber, pumps, cordage, furniture, tools, 
machinery, paints, sections of light railway, and numerous other 
articles. Sales were made against war damages or on account. 



130 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

cost of production, or rented at an annual rental of 
three per cent, or two-thirds of the cost price. The 
state further undertook to erect free of charge groups 
of workingmen's houses, provided the land on which 
they were placed belonged to the state or local com- 
munity or was rented for the purpose, the material of 
the houses in such cases remaining the property of the 
state. The liquidation of the French^ British, and 
American army stocks to which the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions had a claim was carried out by 
agents of the office of industrial reconstruction, the 
duties in connection with the British stocks being 
shared with the Regional Purchasing Agency at Lille. 

Another important part of the work of the office 
had to do with the supply of electrical motors for 
industrial establishments, in aid of which a credit of 
55,000,000 francs was opened with the Ministry of 
Public Works. The formation of a company for the 
construction and operation of a high-tension system of 
electrical power transmission was authorized by law 
in August, 1920. The expense of installing the system, 
which was to cover practically the entire invaded 
area, was estimated at 135,000,000 francs, and was to 
be borne in part by the state and in part by the com- 
panies or establishments using the power. 

In addition to the sums available for industrial sin- 
istres as indemnity for war damages, and the appro- 
priations of the Ministry of the Liberated Regions car- 
ried by the budgets from year to year, very large 
special credits were opened from time to time in aid of 
industrial reconstruction. A decree of June 10, 1919, 
authorized the office of industrial reconstruction to 
approve advances to the Regional Purchasing Agency 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 131 

at Lille to the amount of 12,000,000 francs. On Sep- 
tember 19 the amount was raised to 50,000,000 francs. 
Meantime, on July 27, a credit of 20,000,000 francs had 
been opened for the various sectors, one-half at least 
of the amount going to the Lille sector. Ten days later 
500,000,000 francs was added to the 750,000,000 francs 
already appropriated by laws of August 6, 1917, and 
December 31, 1918; this amount was increased by 
1,500,000,000 francs on October 22. The total of these 
advances, which by no means exhaust the list, reached 
2,820,000,000 francs, to which is to be added numerous 
appropriations, some hundreds of millions in the ag- 
gregate, in aid of particular sectors. 

This in substance was the administrative scheme. 
The criticism which has been most strongly urged 
against it is that it favored the industrial sinistre at the 
expense of the farmer, the merchant, and the profes- 
sional classes, and that housing was neglected while 
factory building thrived. There can be no doubt but 
that the allegations of fact upon which the criticism is 
based are true. It should be pointed out, however, 
that the administration of the office of industrial re- 
construction, prior to the time when the office was 
merged in the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, was 
characterized by an energy and an organizing ability 
which the other agencies of reconstruction unhappily 
lacked, that the higher technical staff was exception- 
ally competent, and that the work of industrial resto- 
ration was already well advanced before the office lost 
its independent status. It has also to be remembered, 
as has already been said, that while industrial losses 
were appallingly heavy, comparatively few industrials 
were ruined by the war, and that those who desired to 



132 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

rebuild, as far the larger number of them did, usually- 
possessed resources which they were quick to use once 
they were assured that damages would be paid. The 
great banking companies of France remained intact, 
factories which had been making munitions resumed 
easily the manufacture of machinery and tools, and the 
great industrial resources of Alsace and Lorraine were 
in French hands. It would have been strange if, under 
these circumstances, the revival of industry had not 
made relatively rapid progress even if governmental 
organization had not been as efficient as it was. 

Whether or not the development of industry at the 
expense of agriculture and domestic comfort was the 
best thing for the invaded departments or for the coun- 
try seems to depend a good deal upon the point of 
view. There have been and still are in France two 
sharply contrasted opinions on the subject. It is urged 
on the one hand that since the rehabilitation of the 
national life as a whole, and not merely the restoration 
of particular departments, is the primary aim of recon- 
struction, that end would best have been attained by 
first insuring a normal food supply and reestablishing 
the people in their homes, leaving the development of 
industry to follow naturally when these primary neces- 
sities of happiness and well-being had been insured. 
Agriculture, it is insisted, is stiU the basic French in- 
dustry, attachment to the soil is still a dominating 
French characteristic, and it is these fundamental 
things that ought first to have been considered. 

To this it is replied that agriculture, however impor- 
tant, is no longer the occupation of a majority of the 
French population as it once was; that industrial 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 133 

workers, although having little attachment to the soil, 
are nevertheless as much entitled to consideration as 
the peasants; and that if through delay in the restora- 
tion of industrial life the industries which had grown 
up in the invaded departments had been forced to re- 
establish themselves elsewhere, the entire economic 
life of the invaded regions would have been trans- 
formed. One of the chief reasons, it will be recalled, 
for the stubborn insistence by the Chamber of Depu- 
ties, in the long debate over the law of war damages, 
that the reemployment of indemnities should be made 
obligatory if anything more than the original value of 
the property was to be reimbursed, was the fear that 
the industries of the invaded departments would other- 
wise not return; but if, having been encouraged to 
return, they were compelled to wait until agriculture 
was restored and the population adequately housed, the 
purpose which the law intended would be defeated. 

Whatever the abstract soundness of either theory, it 
is reasonably clear that neither could, under the cir- 
cumstances, have prevailed to the exclusion of the 
other. It was inevitable that the problem of recon- 
struction, once its solution was begun, should be 
treated as a whole. Industrial and agricultural forces, 
however, were unequally matched. Where the indus- 
trial element possessed organization, business methods 
in records and accounting, financial resource, and soli- 
darity of interest, the agricultural element could offer 
little save primitive methods, an ingrained suspicion of 
capital and its ways, small property holdings con- 
stantly growing smaller, and a profound individualism 
which made cooperation and sacrifice difficult or ira- 



134 RECONSTRUCTIONS IN FRANCE 

possible. So far as political influences entered in to 
determine the policy of the government, it was an 
unequal struggle in which industry won. The chief 
regret to be entertained is that the end which the gov- 
ernment sought — namely, the restoration of normal life 
in all respects — should have been pursued with such 
unequal energy in the different fields into which the 
administrative worth of reconstruction was long 
divided. 

A survey made on May 1, 1921, of 4,701 industrial 
establishments employing at least twenty persons each 
out of a total of 5,297 such establishments before 
the war, showed the following results. Of the 4,701 
establishments, 760 were employing at least as many 
persons as before the war, and were accordingly to be 
classed as industries in which reconstruction was com- 
plete. Of this number 207 were metallurgical or elec- 
trical works or works manufacturing structural mate- 
rial, 137 were textile industries, 55 were sugar re- 
fineries, canneries, food factories, and the like, 14 were 
mines or quarries, and 347 represented various indus- 
tries. The number of establishments which had re- 
sumed operations, but with a smaller working force 
than in 1914, was 2,885, of which 712 were textile 
works and 661 metallurgical, electrical, or construction 
works. The total number of establishments which 
were operating in whole or in part was 77.5 per cent, 
of the number surveyed. A similar survey of 6,340 
establishments employing more than ten persons each, 
out of a total of 8,792 such establishments before the 
war, showed 4,940 operating in whole or in part. 

The number of employees in 1914 in the 5,297 
establishments employing at least twenty persons each 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 135 

was 816,716; in 1921 it was 271,337. To this latter 
figure is to be added 75,221 persons engaged in clearing 
or rebuilding. The number of persons actually engaged 
in production was thus about one-third of the pre-war 
total. The number of employees in industrial estab- 
lishments is not, of course, a wholly accurate indica- 
tion of the volume of production. The figures for 
1921, for example, show the number of industrial work- 
ers who had returned and found employment, but 
they do not take account of changes in methods of 
production, or of the average length of the working 
day or week as compared with the period before the 
war, or of strikes. On this point some comparisons 
made in October, 1921, are informing. Certain impor- 
tant groups of industries — textiles, metallurgy, tools 
and hardware, chemicals, clothing, leather, and mines 
— in which production had attained on an average 50 
per cent, of its pre-war volume, were employing 55 per 
cent, of their pre-war working force. As between the 
several groups, however, the variations were consider- 
able, the percentages of production and employment 
being, for textiles, 45 and 55 respectively, for metal- 
lurgy 50 and 55, for tools and hardware 66 and 63, for 
chemicals 58.5 and 62, for clothing 58.5 and 73, for 
leather 45 and 67, and for mines 31 and 36. It would 
appear from these figures that the widespread unem- 
ployment which prevailed in France in the spring and 
early summer of 1921 was less acute in the liberated 
regions than elsewhere. 

An examination of the list of industries enumerated 
in September, 1921, shows some interesting variations. 
Of the six establishments engaged in fine metal work 
or the treatment of precious stones, all had resumed 



136 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

operations. Of manufactures of straw, feathers, etc., 

93.3 per cent, had resumed, of printing and binding, 
89.6 per cent., of tools and hardware 88 per cent., of 
furniture and woodworking 85.2 per cent., of clothing 

83.4 per cent., and of chemical industries 77.9 per cent. 
The lowest percentages were to be found in the textile 
industry and in establishments dealing with agricul- 
tural products and food, where the figures of resump- 
tion were 68.6 per cent, and 62.6 per cent, respectively. 
Generally speaking, the resumption of operations was 
most rapid in industries which were represented by 
comparatively few establishments, or in those in which 
the cost of new machinery or buildings was relatively 
small. A resumption of work in only 68.6 per cent, 
of the textile mills, for example, must be considered 
along with the fact that 1,237 textile mills were covered 
by the survey. 

Statistical data for a more detailed study of indus- 
trial reconstruction as a whole, or for a comparison 
between the present facilities for production and those 
which existed before the war, are unfortunately lacking. 
The statistical methods of the French government 
leave much to be desired, and French business men 
are notoriously reluctant to give information about 
their affairs. Figures compiled by the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions to September 1, 1921, for industries 
of all kinds, show that in the Lille sector, the largest 
and most important industrial area in the north, about 
eleven-twelfths of the establishments had resumed 
operations in whole or in part; in the Valenciennes 
sector, the next in importance, more than five-sixths, 
and in the Laon sector, the third in rank, about five- 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 137 

eighths. The percentage of resumption in the Arras 
sector was about the same as that in the sector of 
Valenciennes, and that in the Amiens sector a trifle 
larger than at Laon. In the Reims, Maubeuge, and 
Compiegne sectors more than three-fourths of the 
industries were operating, and in the Nancy sector 
about five-sixths. 

Any detailed treatment of the subject, however, even 
if statistics were available, would fill a stout volume. 
The full record of progress in industrial reconstruction 
is to be read only in the history of the thousands of 
industries which have been reestablished, and which 
are rapidly restoring the industrial life of the invaded 
departments to a condition approximately that which 
was enjoyed before the war.^ Yet for the untechnical 
observer these details, even if they were accessible, 
would hardly do more than confirm the general impres- 
sion which a visit to the devastated departments leaves. 
To-day the traveler, no matter what manufacturing or 
mining district he may enter, finds himself in a hive of 
industry. From the Pas-de-Calais and the Nord to 
the Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Vosges, in the Marne 
and the Aisne as well as in the Gise and the Ardennes, 
factories are under construction or already operating, 
mines are being restored or actually worked, and rail- 
ways, rivers, and canals are thickly dotted with ship- 
ments of building material, machinery, raw materials, 
finished products, and coal. Hundreds of factories and 
mills of which only the wreckage survived at the time 

* A series of profusely illustrated articles in Le Monde Illttstre, 
1920-1921, gives general sketches of numerous establishments. Both 
French and English editions are published. 



138 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

of the armistice are being rebuilt on new and larger 
lines and with the best modern construction, and 
equipped with engines and machinery of the latest 
pattern and of increased productive capacity. Store- 
houses and cranes, railway connections, slips for canal 
boats, oil tanks and water reservoirs, and whole villages 
of solidly built workingmen's houses, are under way 
everywhere, while the greatly increased use of electrical 
power is covering the industrial area with a network 
of high-tension transmission lines. Iron and steel mills, 
machinery and boiler works, factories for hardware, 
tools, and chemicals, textile plants, woodworking es- 
tablishments of various kinds, breweries, brickyards, 
cement works, and quarries are only the more impor- 
tant evidences of an industrial renaissance of which 
one is hardly ever out of sight. 

The one notable exception to the general record 
of recovery is the sugar industry. Hardly any of 
the sugar factories which were destroyed by the war 
have yet been restored, the 34 plants in operation 
being either those whose injuries were compara- 
tively slight, or those which were located outside 
the limits of the war zone. Of the more than 140 
sugar factories which suffered on account of the 
war, at least eleven, it is reported, will not be rebuilt 
and a number of others will be absorbed by larger 
companies. Reports for the operating season of 1920- 
1921, the latest available,^ showed that in the seven 
departments of the Aisne, the Ardennes, the Marne, 
the Nord, the Oise, the Pas-de-Calais, and the Somme 
56 companies were considering the reconstruction of 
their plants, but that in the case of 42 plants the prob- 

^Annuaire Sucrier (Paris), 1920-1921. 



THE RECONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRY 139 

able date when work would be resumed could not yet 
be indicated. The fact that no considerable amount 
of rebuilding was yet in progress presumably explains 
the trifling amount reported to have been received for 
war damages. 

Certain special incidents of the industrial revival 
should not be overlooked. The local chambers of 
commerce, some of which began even during the period 
of German occupation to plan for times of peace, have 
played an important part in the reconstruction pro- 
gram; and the syndicates of employers which are an 
important element in French industry have acted 
effectively. Branches of the Bank of France, the Credit 
Lyonnais, the Societe Generale, and other large banks 
were promptly reopened throughout the invaded area, 
and private banking houses have resumed business. 
Huge loans, mainly subscribed in France, have been 
floated for reconstruction purposes, sometimes by indi- 
vidual concerns, sometimes by combinations of com- 
panies. In December and January, 1921-22, for ex- 
ample, three large companies engaged in the manu- 
facture of machinery, railway and construction ma- 
terial, electrical appliances, etc., with combined capi- 
tals of 261,000,000 francs, floated a joint loan, under 
the name of the Groupement Cail, Fives-Lille, Thom- 
son-Houston, of 185,000,000 francs; while the Groupe- 
ment de la Grosse Metallurgie, comprising the largest 
iron and steel companies in the north and east, placed 
on the market a loan of 500,000,000 francs. Far 
the larger part of the material used in rebuilding 
has been drawn from France, far the larger part of 
the machinery with which the restored factories, mines, 
and mills are equipped has been made in French 



140 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

establishments or in those of Alsace and Lorraine, and 
most of the labor has been French labor. When, in 
October, 1914, the government declared its purpose to 
come to the aid of the invaded departments to the 
fullest extent of its ability, it also announced that the 
other departments would be called upon to help. No 
such call has ever been made, but the restoration of 
industry which is already far advanced, and which two 
or three years more should see virtually completed, has 
been in truth the work, not merely of the invaded 
departments, but of the whole of France. 

Finally, it should be noted that with manufacturing 
industries as with the railways, reconstruction has 
planned for the future. In hardly any important estab- 
lishment have the owners been content merely to 
replace what was destroyed. Larger and better plants, 
improved machinery and processes, reduction of waste, 
and increased and more varied output are the aim prac- 
tically everywhere. No one who has seen the indus- 
trial regions of invaded France as the war left them 
will ever regard the war as a blessing in disguise. Yet 
the war taught many lessons, and not the least of those 
lessons was the need of a better and more scientific 
organization of French industry. That lesson many 
industrial sinistres of the north and east have taken 
to heart. One may reasonably anticipate that within 
a few years, if labor disturbance and international 
complications do not prevent, the figures of pre-war 
production in all primary industries will have been sur- 
passed, and that the products of French factories and 
mills will have gained a new competitive place in the 
markets of the world. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE RESTORATION OF THE MINES 

The mining regions of France comprise two distinct 
and separated areas: the coal-mining district of the 
north, lying almost entirely in the departments of the 
Nord and the Pas-de-Calais, and the iron-ore district 
of Lorraine, extending from Nancy to the north and 
west of Metz. Both regions were occupied by the 
Germans and both suffered heavily, the losses in the 
coal-mining area being the most serious. 

The bituminous-coal region of northern France forms 
the southwestern portion of a series of coal deposits 
which extend from Westphalia and the Ruhr district 
across Belgium to the western part of the Pas-de- 
Calais. The total length of the basin in France is 
upwards of one hundred kilometres, the breadth vary- 
ing from five to fifteen kilometres. The mines are 
worked under concessions from the state, the conces- 
sions of the Anzin company, to the west of Valen- 
ciennes, and the Aniche company, to the east and south 
of Douai, being territorially the largest and that of the 
Lens company the most productive. The total coal 
production of the region in 1913 was 27,388,000 tons, 
of which 20,858,757 tons, or more than half of the total 
production in France, came from the mines which were 
requisitioned or destroyed. The latter group of mines 

141 



142 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

also furnished in 1913 2,241,000 tons of coke, or more 
than three-fourths of the total French production. The 
annual output of the Nord mines supplied about seven- 
eighths of the coal required by the industries of that 
department. 

The Lens basin in the Pas-de-Calais, comprising a 
number of concessions in addition to that of the Lens 
company, had before the war an annual output of 
about 10,000,000 tons and was the most important from 
the standpoint of production. The Lens company 
itself, with an output of about 3,500,000 tons from 
sixteen mines, was also the chief producer of coke. 

The German occupation of the mines and their 
eventual devastation went through several stages.^ 
In August and September, 1914, the advance forces of 
the German right wing reconnoitered the mining basin, 
but no depredations were committed. Although thirty 
per cent, of the personnel had been mobilized the mines 
continued operations. At the end of August such of 
the personnel as was still subject to mobilization was 
evacuated and locomotives were withdrawn. On Octo- 
ber 1 the invasion began. The Nord mines were not 
disturbed, but in those of the Pas-de-Calais near to the 
front work was suspended, many localities were devas- 
tated, and ofl&ces, storehouses, workingmen's quarters, 
and works were pillaged and in some cases burned. 

The first German advance was followed by about 
four years of organized occupation. In December, 
1914, the Bethune concession was entered; in the fall 

*The data for the northern basins which follow are taken from 
an address of M. Stouvenot, chief engineer of mines at Douai, 
delivered before the Industrial Society of Northern France, May 26, 
1921, a copy of which was kindly placed at my disposal by the author. 



THE RESTORATION OF THE MINES 143 

of 1915 Loos was taken and the advance was pushed to 
the south of Lievin; in April, 1917, the German line 
approached Lens. Until October, 1918, however, fur- 
ther changes in the German front were of minor impor- 
tance, and the line itself did not go beyond Lens. The 
Nord mines continued to operate under German super- 
vision, but chiefly for local needs; nearly half of their 
output was eventually requisitioned, however, and a 
portion of their supplies and machinery was taken. 
Production in the Nord, which had reached 6,813,761 
tons in 1913, fell to 1,289,623 tons in the second half 
of 1914 and 1,947,158 tons in 1915; it then rose to 
2,433,975 tons in 1916 and 2,350,115 tons in 1917. The 
Pas-de-Calais mines, on the other hand, were subjected 
to systematic devastation, those not working were 
stripped of whatever could be carried away, and the 
pits began to fill with water. Production, which had 
dropped from 11,847,766 tons in 1913 to 1,644,245 tons 
in the last six months of 1914, fell to 256,080 tons in 
1915, 416,452 tons in 1916, and 281,203 tons in 1917. 
The regime of general destruction began in Septem- 
ber, 1918. The mines which had continued working 
under German control suspended operations, and before 
the German forces withdrew practically all parts of the 
works, including the company railways, were destroyed 
by explosions. Lack of time prevented the complete 
destruction of the linings of the pits except at Lens 
and Lievin, where even this was successfully accom- 
plished. At 103 places where mining was carried on, 
comprising 212 pits ranging in depth from 230 to 704 
metres, destruction was virtually complete, while 23 
other places not actually invaded but under fire suf- 



144 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

fercd more or less damage in their surface installations. 
All of the hoists except four at Anzin were thrown 
down; practically all machines except two small ex- 
traction machines at Anzin were either ruined or left 
unusable; large numbers of boilers were injured or dis- 
placed; washing machines, screens, and coke ovens 
were generally demolished, and railways destroyed. Of 
18,000 workingmen's houses injured or destroyed, 12,000 
were completely wrecked, and 140 pits out of 212 had 
been ruined. 

Save at Bethune, where temporary repairs were 
quickly made, all of the mines of the Nord and most 
of those of the Pas-de-Calais were flooded, some of the 
most important mines, including those at Meurchin, 
Lens, Lievin, and Vimy, being completely filled before 
the pit linings could be restored. At the end of 1918 
100,000,000 cubic metres of water still remained to be 
pumped out and 2,800 kilometres of underground gal- 
leries awaited reconstruction. No machinery was left 
for entering the mines, the pumps were gone, railways 
were a wreck, and there was no power. The estimated 
value in 1914 of the installations destroyed was about 
975,000,000 francs, representing a replacement cost of 
from four to five milliards. 

Before the Germans had withdrawn, however, the 
work of reconstruction had begun. In the summer of 
1917 a commission representing all of the mining com- 
panies whose properties had been invaded undertook 
a systematic study of the problem. As a result of 
their deliberations four organizations were presently 
formed. A technical commission, dealing with the 
question of machinery and appliances, placed orders 



THE RESTORATION OF THE MINES 145 

which by January 1, 1921, had aggregated 454,535,927 
francs. An electrical company (La Societe JElectrique 
des Houilleres du Pas-de-Calais) undertook to supply 
electrical power for the Pas-de-Calais mines, and an- 
other company (La Societe Civile de Denoyage des 
Houilleres du Pas-de-Calais) devoted itself to the task 
of pumping and clearing the mines in the same depart- 
ment. When on February 1, 1921, the state ceased to 
make advances in money and material a fourth organ- 
ization (Le Groupement des Houilleres du Nord et du 
Pas-de-Calais) was formed which issued a collective 
loan of 1,200,000,000 francs. 

The first task was the restoration of the railways 
operated by the mining companies. Of these all but 
about 400 kilometres had been rebuilt by the end of 
May, 1921. By the same date the clearing of debris 
had been largely completed, more than half of the 206 
hoists had been rebuilt or repaired, and 92 temporary 
structures for pumping or reconstruction work had been 
erected. Old machinery was repaired and new elec- 
trical machines were installed, and the introduction of 
electrical power, supplied in part by independent elec- 
trical companies, was begun. 

In February, 1920, a contract was made with the 
state for the use of 45 vertical pumps and other appli- 
ances for clearing the mines. All the ventilating ma- 
chinery of the mines had been destroyed and had to be 
replaced. The reconstruction of the woodwork in 
the underground galleries, much of which had been 
weakened or displaced when the mines were flooded, 
and the restoration of the linings of the pits, were long 
and difl&cult tasks in which hopeful beginnings were 



146 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

made. The reconstruction of screens, washers, coke 
ovens, and mills was left until the last, the first aim 
being the restoration of the mines to a point where the 
extraction of coal could be resumed. 

By the summer of 1921 the production of coal in the 
reconstructed Nord mines had exceeded fifty per cent. 
of the pre-war figure. The total production for all the 
mines of the two departments was about one-fourth 
of the production before the war. Coke ovens were in 
operation at Anzin, Aniche, Lens, and elsewhere, and 
the making of briquettes had been resumed. All of 
the employees' houses in the Nord which could be 
repaired had been put in order, and some thousands of 
new houses had been erected. At Lens, where 9,022 
houses had been swept away, 1,100 had been rebuilt; 
at Lievin, where 4,500 houses had been destroyed, more 
than 800 had been replaced; at Meurchin only 200 
houses remained to be built at the end of July, 1921.^ 
The personnel of the Nord mines, which numbered 
34,044 in 1914, had risen to 36,348, while in the Pas- 
de-Calais the number of employees reached 34,426 as 
against 56,558 before the war. 

Until February 1, 1921, the expense of reconstruc- 
tion, as well as the cost of clearing away debris and 
pumping the mines, was borne by the state, the funds 
for reconstruction being in the form of advances on 
account of war damages later to be determined. After 
that date state advances for reconstruction ceased, 
but the state continued to pay for clearing and pump- 
ing, the cost of these operations being about 80,000,000 

^The figures for Lens and Meurchin are taken from La Journee 
Industrielle, July 21, 1921. 



THE RESTORATION OF THE MINES 147 

francs per month. The expenses of further recon- 
struction, averaging from 55,000,000 to 60,000,000 
francs per month, were met from the proceeds of the 
joint loan of 1,200,000,000 francs already referred to, the 
security for which was the indemnities which the state 
had undertaken to pay in installments during a period 
of thirty years. It is estimated that sufficient funds 
are available through this loan to enable the work to 
proceed until the summer of 1922. 

M. Stouvenot, from whose comprehensive report the 
preceding facts are drawn, estimates that the pre-war 
volume of production will be reached at Anzin and 
Aniche at the beginning of 1923, at Vicoigne and 
Azincourt by the middle of that year, and at dates 
subsequent to 1926 for various large mines of the Pas- 
de-Calais. The attainment of this result, however, 
involves a considerable increase in personnel. Taking 
into account the lessened production due to the estab- 
lishment of an eight-hour day or forty-eight-hour 
week, the labor supply of the entire northern coal area, 
which before the war was about 130,000, must rise to 
200,000. This means among other things the erection 
of about 50,000 additional houses at a cost of 1,500,- 
000,000 francs. The interest on this sum at six per 
cent., apportioned to the annual pre-war production 
of 27,500,000 tons for the whole basin, would raise the 
production cost of coal more than three francs per ton. 

Taking all these various facts into consideration, it 
is the conclusion of M. Stouvenot that the work of 
reconstituting the coal-mining industry had been at 
the end of May, 1921, about one-fourth achieved. As 
the work of restoration since that date has continued 



148 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

without interruption, the percentage of reconstruction 
accomplished should have undergone considerable in- 
crease by the time this chapter is in print. 

The remarkable progress which some of the mining 
companies have made can best be illustrated by some 
extracts from the report of the Aniche company for 
the year 1920, submitted to the stockholders on June 7, 
1921.^ The Aniche concession, while one of the largest 
in area, was not the most productive, its output of coal 
in 1913 having been exceeded by that of the concessions 
of Lens, Anzin, Courrieres, Bethune, and Bruay. The 
company was reorganized as a joint-stock company in 

1920, and the report accordingly covers the first year's 
operations under the new form. The net profits for 
the year were 7,210,958 francs. The valuation of the 
real property of the company on December 31, 1920, 
was 110,961,455 francs, while the capital had been 
increased during the year from 124,480,000 francs to 
160,000,000 francs. The larger part of the cost of 
reconstruction, aggregating 144,744,420 francs, had 
been met by indemnities, but the company had also 
participated in the loan issued jointly by the mines 
of the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais. The production 
of coal, which in 1919 amounted to 113,915 tons, 
reached 586,005 tons in 1920; for the month of April, 

1921, the output was 100,392 tons, or about fifty per 
cent, of the monthly average before the war. 

The council of the company reported that the re- 
equipment of all the locations would be practically 
complete by the end of 1921. All the ruins had been 

* Published in extended summary in the Cote Desjosses (Paris), 
November 25, 1921. 



THE RESTORATION OF THE MINES 149 

cleared except the coke ovens, and the clearing of these 
was not important because new ovens had been built 
elsewhere. All the buildings had been repaired or re- 
placed and all the boilers restored. Seventeen metal 
hoists, three hoists of reenforced concrete, and five pro- 
visional hoists of wood had been erected, and the full 
equipment of ventilators would soon be working. The 
linings of 24 out of 28 pits^ with a combined length of 
9,866 metres, had been replaced and the remainder 
nearly completed. At nine of the twelve locations the 
pits had been freed from water. Of 350 kilometres of 
galleries 113 kilometres had been repaired; the more 
difficult part of this work, however, remained to be 
done. The briquette works had been restored to pre- 
war capacity, with a record of production of 97,272 
tons in 1920 as compared with 8,371 tons in 1919. All 
the railway lines had been reestablished arid 27 loco- 
motives and 1,500 cars were in use. Workingmen's 
houses to the number of 3,340 had been completely 
repaired and 600 houses were under construction, all 
of the company hospitals were ready for use, and a 
bacteriological laboratory was being reconstituted. 

The iron deposits of Lorraine lie mainly along the 
former northeastern frontier of France from Metz to 
Longwy, with a length from north to south of about 
forty kilometres and an average width from east to 
west of about twenty-five kilometres. Small portions 
of the deposit extend into Belgium and Luxembourg; 
the remainder is divided about equally between the 
former Lorraine and the French department of 
Meurthe-et-Moselle, forming in the latter department 
two subdivisions, those of Briey and Thionville. To 



150 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the north and east the deposit ends abruptly with the 
valley of the Moselle; to the south its disappearance 
is gradual. The Nancy basin, separated from the 
northern area by a zone about forty kilometres in 
width, contains less than two hundred square kilo- 
metres as compared with approximately one thousand 
square kilometres in the Metz-Longwy region, and 
is relatively less valuable because the ore layers are 
thinner. The iron ore of Lorraine is commonly known 
as "minette," a diminutive denoting ore; of less than 
average quality. 

At the outbreak of the war eighteen mines were in 
operation in the Briey basin and fifteen mines in the 
basin of Longwy. The output of the Briey basin in 
1913 was 15,104,000 tons, of the Longwy basin 2,958,000 
tons. In the first months of 1914, before the German 
occupation, the two basins together produced 10,- 
300,000 tons. The Briey mines employed about 
15,000 men in 1913 and the Longwy mines about 3,000. 

The iron mines were worked to a greater or less 
extent by the Germans throughout the war. The 
annual production of ore, -however, did not on the 
average exceed thirty per cent, of the pre-war figures. 
The largest production was in 1917, when 5,500,000 
tons were extracted; in 1918, until the armistice, the 
amount was 4,700,000 tons. Considerable injury was 
done by neglect or careless handling, water accumu- 
lated, and many shafts and galleries caved or sank. In 
the end the mines were stripped of most of the equip- 
ment that could be removed. Electrical machinery, 
boilers, compressors, and rolling stock were carried 
away, as were also tools and usable metal. To this 



THE RESTORATION OF THE MINES 151 

was to be added some injury due to bombardment or 
other military operations. 

In comparison with the coal mines, however, the 
damage in many instances was small. In the mines of 
the Longwy company, occupying a concession of 1,660 
hectares and producing before the war 1,500,000 tons 
of ore annually, there was no loss from bombardment, 
but most of the installations had to be replaced and 
many employees' houses required repair. At the 
Anderny-Chevillon mines the trolley lines, rails, and 
engines were removed, but the pumps were kept work- 
ing and the general injury was not great. The Landres 
mines suffered principally from water. At Amermont- 
Dommary, on the other hand, most of the surface 
equipment was destroyed, and the water in the pits 
rose to within fifty yards of the surface. At Home- 
court, where the pre-war output was 1,800,000 tons 
annually, the galleries opened by the Germans required 
extensive reconstruction. The Jarny mines lost the 
larger part of their installations, the central power 
station had to be rebuilt, and 120 employees' houses 
suffered from bombardment. 

One of the chief difficulties in reconstruction was to 
keep the mines free from water. Of the thirty-one 
mines only three had actually been flooded, but in the 
others many of the pumps were defective, reserve 
pumps had disappeared, and in 1919-1920 there was a 
serious shortage of coal. Fortunately, an electric trans- 
port line connecting the central works of most of the 
mines had been constructed by the Germans, and this 
line, which served to replace local lines that had been 
destroyed, helped out the scanty stocks of coal. One 



152 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

of the new plans of reconstruction is the installation of 
a great electrical power system in which all the mines 
will share, and which will dispense with the use of coal 
by utilizing the power from the furnaces. 

In November, 1920, two years after the armistice, 
the mines of the Briey district produced 365,422 tons 
of ore, those of the Longwy district 82,941 tons; a total 
of 448,363 tons for the two basins. This was at the 
rate of 5,380,356 tons a year, or about thirty per cent, 
of the pre-war figure. 

Comprehensive figures showing the revival of metal- 
lurgical industries and gas plants are not available for 
a later date than 1920. By November of that year 27 
blast furnaces out of 67 that had been wholly or par- 
tially destroyed had been reconstructed, with a capacity 
of about 1,400,000 tons of pig iron per annum. In 
twenty furnaces under construction it was planned to 
use electricity instead of coke. The number of iron 
foundries destroyed or damaged was 275 out of a total 
of 302; at the end of 1920, 265 had resumed operations 
in whole or in part. The revival of the copper industry 
is shown by 115 plants rebuilt out of 136 destroyed or 
injured. Of the 200 gas plants in the invaded depart- 
ments, three-fourths were entirely destroyed. By the 
end of 1920, 52 plants had been restored and were 
operating at pre-war capacity, and 42 others were 
supplying about one-half of the quantity of gas' fur- 
nished before the war. The place of some forty other 
plants which are not to be rebuilt will be taken by 
works using water power. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 

The restoration of agriculture in the invaded depart- 
ments presents a number of features quite different 
from those which characterized the reconstruction of 
railways, factories, and mines. For one thing, agri- 
cultural production was never entirely suspended even 
in the war zone. In spite of the general exodus of 
population, the destruction of farm buildings, the 
appropriation of crops and cattle by the Germans in 
the regions which they occupied, and the necessary 
overrunning of fields, orchards, and pastures by the 
French and Allied armies, many farmers continued to 
work their land even when the land itself was actually 
under fire. The sight of peasants plowing, cultivating, 
or harvesting within sight of trenches and batteries, 
undisturbed by shells which occasionally exploded 
near by, was not at all uncommon in localities close to 
the front. On the other hand, comparatively few 
farmers possessed reserves of capital or savings upon 
which they could draw after the war, and fewer still 
could offer anything save their land as security for 
loans, at the same time that their intense individualism 
and independent temper made cooperation for any 
purpose extremely difficult. The losses of war, accord- 
ingly, fell with peculiar severity upon a class which, in 
addition to lack of capital and a cooperative spirit, 

153 



154 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

could not begin to work until the land itself had been 
restored by herculean effort, and which even then could 
not proceed until tools, horses, seed^ and food had been 
supplied. 

The position taken by the government with reference 
to the reconstitution of agriculture has already been 
indicated in a general way in the account that has been 
given of the organization of reconstruction and the 
provision for the payment of war damages. In prin- 
ciple, agriculture took its place with other industries 
and other forms of property. What had been lost was 
to be restored, indemnities were to be based upon 
valuations in 1914 plus the cost of replacement if the 
indemnity was to be reemployed, advances in money 
and kind were to be extended, and the primary cost of 
clearing and leveling the land was to be borne by the 
state. There remain to be traced the steps made neces- 
sary by the special nature of agriculture as an industry 
and by the peculiar situation of the farmers themselves. 

Partly with a view to making good the serious lack 
of horses and oxen for farm work, but also with the 
object of increasing the deficient national stock of food, 
the Ministry of Agriculture early exerted itself to obtain 
a supply of tractors. The machines were at first fur- 
nished to departments, communes, and agricultural 
societies by means of a subvention equal to one-half 
of the purchase price. On May 15, 1917, authority was 
given to the local governments and agricultural soci- 
eties to cede the tractors on the same terms to indi- 
vidual farmers who were entitled to war damages, on 
condition that the farmer should undertake to plant 
during the following year at least fifty hectares of 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 155 

wheat or one hundred hectares of various cereals. This 
was followed on July 16 by instructions to the prefects 
to grant advances to agricultural sinistres to an amount 
not exceeding four hundred francs for each hectare 
capable of being brought under cultivation. In addi- 
tion, the preliminary estimates of damages in the case 
of such sinistres might be increased twenty per cent. 
These advances, intended to enable the sinistre to use 
the tools, seed, etc., with which he had been furnished 
until he could harvest a crop, were to be charged against 
the credit of 300,000,000 francs already opened for 
general reconstruction purposes. Additional credits for 
the purchase and cession of materials v/ere voted by 
the chambers in August. 

The latter month saw also the creation within the 
Ministry of War of a special soil restoration service, 
already referred to, intended to be attached later to 
the Ministry of Agriculture when the purely military 
part of the work had been completed, but actually in 
October transferred to the Ministry of Public Works 
and Transport. In October the office of agricultural 
reconstruction was reorganized under an administrative 
council whose membership included representatives of 
numerous agricultural associations. In November this 
office was given control of all the agricultural restora- 
tion work throughout the invaded departments. 

The pressing needs of the farmers, joined to the fact 
that the legal provisions for the adjustment of war 
damages were still under debate in the Senate and 
Chamber of Deputies, necessitated repeated extensions 
of credit for the purchase of materials, farm animals, 
and seed. These credits eventually reached large 



156 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

amounts. Thus on February 8, 1918, advances to 
agricultural societies were authorized of 200,000 francs 
when the society comprised only a canton, 400,000 
francs when it included an arrondissement, and 800,000 
francs when its operations extended over a department. 
A decree of April 25, 1919, increased the total advances 
to 1,500,000 francs, while on June 3 the amounts were 
raised to 1,000,000 francs for societies covering an 
arrondissement and 5,000,000 francs for societies which 
included a department. The use of tractors was in- 
creasing, but it was not increasing fast enough, and at 
the end of November, 1918, a special committee was 
created to investigate the whole question of agricul- 
tural machinery and tools, to study the needs of each 
region, to devise means of increasing the use of me- 
chanical appliances and of training workers to operate 
and repair them, and to stimulate the improvement of 
existing models and the creation of new and better 
ones. 

One of the special embarrassments of sinistres was 
the fact that they were not permitted to borrow on 
the security of future indemnities, but were dependent 
upon government advances which were not only ir- 
regular, but which were also in many cases less than 
might have been secured by loans. The prohibition 
was doubtless intended to protect the sinistre as well 
as to protect the state, and it probably would not have 
occasioned much controversy if the cantonal commis- 
sions had dealt promptly with the evaluation of dam- 
ages, but in practice it often worked hardship. A law 
of June 21, 1919, relieved the situation somewhat by 
allowing cooperative agricultural societies in the in- 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 157 

vaded departments to receive from the state advances 
in money or kind to an amount equal to five times their 
capital stock. The privileges of the law were also 
extended to free syndicates engaged in hydraulic or 
other work for the benefit of agriculture, and to artisans 
in rural communities who belonged to local agricultural 
societies. The proceeds of such advances were to 
be used only for the purchase and distribution of 
machinery, tools, seed, and other supplies, and for fur- 
thering the sale of farm products. 

The purchase of equipment and supplies through 
societies or other third parties, on account of war in- 
demnities, gave rise to numerous difficulties and to 
some abuses. Sinistres complained that they were cut 
off from buying on better terms at fairs or markets, and 
that new purchase had sometimes to be made before 
existing accounts could be settled.^ To put an end to 
these troubles the Minister of the Liberated Regions, 
under whose jurisdiction agricultural reconstruction 
had now passed^ extended to the sinistres in August 
the option of making purchases directly or through 
agencies. In the former case the sinistre called upon 
the prefect for such advances as were due, assurance 
being required that the articles to be purchased would 
be used within two months. As the local agricultural 
societies and the Central Purchasing Agency had the 
larger stocks and could make quicker delivery, the 
majority of purchases continued to be made through 
them. 

One of the most important tasks of agricultural 
restoration was the replenishment of the depleted stock 

* Circular of the Minister of the Liberated Regions, August 2, 1919. 



158 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

of cattle, sheep, and goats. In April, 1919, an agree- 
ment was entered into between France and Luxem- 
bourg for the purchase in the latter country of 6,000 
head of cattle, in return for which France undertook 
to furnish Luxembourg with 1,200 tons of refrigerated 
beef. The cattle thus obtained were distributed to 
the departments of the Aisne, the Marne, the Ardennes, 
the Meuse, and Meurthe-et-Moselle. Of the 6,128 
head actually purchased, only one died in transit. The 
cost of the cattle, not counting transport, disinfection, 
and similar expenses, was 6,357,276 francs. The aver- 
age cost per head to the French farmers, charged 
against their war indemnities, was 1,037.40 francs, to 
which was added from 50 to 100 francs, according to the 
prices paid in Luxembourg, to cover transport and 
other outlays. 

In May and June 7,261 head of cattle were imported 
from Switzerland, at an average price to the French 
farmers of 2,235 francs per head. These were dis- 
tributed to the same departments to which the Luxem- 
bourg cattle had been allotted, with the addition of 
the Vosges. The number was increased in July and 
August by 6,997 head purchased in Holland ; these were 
allotted to the Aisne, the Ardennes, the Meuse, the 
Nord, the Oise, the Pas-de-Calais, and the Somme. 
The first shipment of American cattle, under a contract 
concluded on April 12 with private parties, arrived on 
August 15, and down to October 15 7,912 head had 
been received. The American cattle were purchased, 
under the oversight of a French commission, in Ver- 
mont, New York, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and 
Wisconsin, and were distributed in France to the Nord, 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 159 

the Ardennes, and Meurthe-et-Moselle. Some 1,750 
head of Algerian cattle were apportioned to the Nord 
and the Ardennes, and 9,804 head purchased in France 
outside of the invaded area were distributed among 
nine departments. All of these allotments were made 
on the basis of the number of cattle in the several 
departments before the war. 

The replenishment of the stock of sheep was a more 
difficult problem, partly because the number of sheep 
had been diminishing from various causes for some 
years before the war, and partly because it was un- 
certain what breed would be likely to do best with 
such pasturage as was available. In the course of the 
summer of 1919, however, 22,796 sheep were imported 
from Algiers and allotted to the Aisne, the Ardennes, 
the Marne, the Meuse, the Nord, and the Pas-de- 
Calais. 

Two other sources of supply for stock remained. 
Under pressure of the German advance in the spring 
of 1918 a considerable number of head of pure-blooded 
stock had been evacuated from the northern depart- 
ments, special arrangements being made to care for 
them in other parts of France. Beginning in January, 
1919, these animals were returned and distributed, 
10,375 head of cattle and 2,676 head of sheep having 
been brought back by the end of the year. On the 
other hand, many of the cattle and other farm animals 
abandoned by the Germans or turned loose into the 
roads during the final retreat were actually in Belgium 
or Lorraine, where some of them had been appro- 
priated to make good local losses. As identification 
was difficult and inquisitorial methods in Belgium were 



160 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

not desirable, an agreement was made with Belgium 
for the cession to France of a certain number of the 
domestic animals of various kinds which, under the 
treaty of Versailles, were to be delivered to Belgium 
by Germany. Some 7,700 head of cattle and 1,500 
horses, besides a few other animals, were eventually 
obtained in this way. A solution of the problem in 
Lorraine was easily found because all of the cattle in 
question belonged to the farmers of Meurthe-et- 
Moselle and had been driven off only a few days be- 
fore the Germans withdrew. The mayors of Lorraine 
were appealed to, and 1,116 head of pure-blooded cat- 
tle were presently returned.^ 

Still another important work which was early under- 
taken was the collection and 'repair of the agricultural 
machinery abandoned by the refugee population or 
left by the Germans as their line from time to time re- 
ceded. In June, 1918, the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions, with the approval of the Ministry of Agri- 
culture and the Ministry of War, began the organiza- 
tion in each invaded department of a repair service. 
Abandoned material of all kinds was assembled in 
parks, and so much of it as could be used was sent to 
central stations for repair. Material which could be 
identified was surrendered to its owners without fur- 
ther formality than the filing of a record with the pre- 
fect, the value of the material being in such cases 
deducted from the estimates of war damages. Mate- 
rial whose owners were unknown was ceded to sinistres 
through the medium of agricultural societies or other 

* The question of cattle and sheep is treated in a series of interest- 
ing articles in the Bulletin des Regions Liberees, October-November, 
1919. 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 161 

authorized agencies. In December, 1919, notwith- 
standing that great quantities of material had been 
disposed of or was still in process of restoration, there 
still remained fifty-nine parks in nine departments. 
In the Nord, where twelve such parks were to be 
found, the value of the assembled material was esti- 
mated at over 3,560,000 francs. Thirty repair shops 
operated by the ministry had already put in order 
more than 45,000 pieces of agricultural machinery, in 
addition to what had been treated in fifty-two private 
establishments working under contract. 

Charges made later that the work of repair was not 
being carried to completion and that large quantities 
of material were being left to spoil, while in some in- 
stances apparently well founded, lose some of their 
weight when it is remembered that many sinistres who 
were able to do so preferred to buy new equipment, 
with the result that the market for renovated ma- 
chinery became somewhat overstocked, and that delays 
in the payment of indemnities kept the volume of pur- 
chases of agricultural appliances below the supply. In 
this connection it may be noted that about 2,100 trac- 
tors were bought in 1919 by the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions. 

Beyond the provision of implements and seed and 
the replenishment of the stock of cattle, it was neces- 
sary also to provide labor for harvesting, and buildings 
or other protection for the crops. Replying on June 
29, 1920, to an interpellation on the subject in the 
Senate, the Minister of the Liberated Regions stated 
that the construction of hangars was being pushed 
with all possible speed, that all available military 



162 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

hangars and other suitable buildings would be used, and 
that 1,100,000 square metres of canvas covers had been 
placed at the disposal of the farmers. Horses and 
wagons attached to other services were being freed for 
use in harvesting. An anticipated supply of labor 
from Poland had been delayed because of the military 
situation in that country, but the lack would be in 
part met by the temporary employment of soldiers, 
for whose release the Ministry of War had already 
given authorization. 

A few days later, on July 2, two members of the 
Agricultural Academy of France reported the results 
of their inspection of the invaded area.^ The larger 
number of the holders of farms had returned. In the 
Somme, of 190,000 hectares of cultivable land requir- 
ing restoration in 1919, at least 90,000 hectares had 
been planted and 65,000 hectares would be available 
by the end of the year. The restoration of the soil was 
less advanced in the Pas-de-Calais, where about 46,000 
hectares out of a total of 138,000 were in crops and 
50,000 hectares were being put in condition. In the 
Nord, on the other hand, between ninety and ninety- 
five per cent, of the arable land was under cultivation, 
although the orchards needed much attention and the 
replacement of stock was making slow progress. In 
the Aisne 192,400 hectares were producing cereals or 
forage crops. In the Ardennes, where a cultivated area 
of 195,000 hectares in 1912 had fallen to 34,000 hec- 
tares in 1919, 95,000 hectares were in crops in 1920, 
and 133,000 head of cattle, as compared with 365,000 
head in 1912, were being pastured. The Meuse, one 
of the poorest departments in 1912 from an agricul- 

^ Bulletin des Regions Liberees, August 2, 1920. 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 163 

tural point of view, showed 63,290 hectares under 
cultivation and 62,300 hectares cleared and leveled, 
out of a total of 166,000 hectares of arable land in 
1912. In the Marne about 63,000 hectares had been 
restored. 

This much the government and the farmers had 
achieved in less than two years after the armistice. 

Financial aid continued to be extended to the 
farmers, either in the form of advances against in- 
demnities or in premiums for the production of food 
crops. In August, 1920, a premium of 200 francs per 
hectare was offered for wheat in the harvest of that 
year; in July, 1921, 66,994,874 francs were appro- 
priated for premiums on wheat and other grains. TKe 
maximum of advances on account of so-called revolv- 
ing funds, to be repaid later from installments of in- 
demnities, had been limited to 2,000 francs per hec- 
tare, or 2,500 francs per hectare in the case of land 
cultivated for industrial purposes (for example, sugar 
beets). In March, 1921, the latter maximum was in- 
creased for certain difficult parts of the devastated 
zone to 3,000 francs per hectare. On the other hand, 
agricultural sinistres were subject to an annual tax of 
six per cent, on profits of over 1,500 francs, profits be- 
tween 1,500 and 4,000 francs, however, being taxed 
on one-half of their amount. A law of June 25, 1920, 
provided that the coefficients (1, 2, or 3) which had 
been established for determining the profits from dif- 
ferent kinds of land should be reduced by 75 per cent, 
in 1920, 50 per cent, in 1922, and 25 per cent, in 1923, 
the reduction applying in each case to the taxes of the 
preceding year. 

The application of the law of war damages to farm 



164 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

property presented many difficult problems in regard 
to which the Ministry of the Liberated Regions not 
seldom found itself in sharp opposition to the 
sinistres. In comparison with the evaluation of losses 
occasioned to buildings, in which the evidence of in- 
jury was both direct and apparent, the evaluation of 
injuries to the soil and its products was a complicated 
task. Numerous and diverse elements had to be con- 
sidered: injuries to the soil by trenches, shell fire, gas, 
or lack of use; injuries to orchards, vineyards, wood- 
land, pasturage, or water supply; losses of cattle or 
other animals, of crops in the ground, or of crops al- 
ready harvested. Account had to be taken not only 
of the value of the different parts of the property in 
1914, but also of the cost of replacement, the latter 
involving such scientific questions as the chemical 
constitution of the soil after war had passed over it, or 
the character and percentage of deterioration due to 
weeds or other consequences of non-cultivation. Al- 
lowance had also to be made for crops raised during the 
war, for any work of recuperation done before damages 
were finally appraised, for cattle or implements recov- 
ered from Germany or from other departments or pro- 
vided by the government, and for any proposed 
changes in the reemployment of indemnities as com- 
pared with the use of the property before the war. 

It was in general the policy of the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions, so far as the work of its technical 
services was concerned, to evaluate each element of 
damage separately, thus making the total indemnity 
the sum of its several parts. On the other hand, since 
the law contemplated an indemnity for those damages 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 165 

only which were direct and the result of war, the cost 
of any restoration that could not be classed under those 
two heads was regarded as an expense devolving solely 
upon the proprietor. The ofl5cial interpretation of the 
law at this point sometimes made discriminations 
which for a layman are hard to understand. For 
example, land which had gone out of cultivation be- 
cause the farmer had been mobilized, or because farm 
animals, equipment, or even the personal service of 
the farmer had been requisitioned by the Germans, was 
not regarded as having suffered* any direct injury as a 
consequence of war. All that the farmer could claim 
in such cases was indemnity for the property carried 
off and not recovered, and for buildings, if any, that 
had been injured or destroyed. The cantonal commis- 
sions, while not bound by the rulings of the ministry, 
were as a rule inclined to take the ministerial point of 
view wherever by so doing the claims of sinistres could 
be reduced. 

In a lengthy circular to the prefects issued on July 
22, 1921, the position of the ministry was elaborately 
expounded, with the addition of a series of tables 
indicating the bases upon which the costs of soil res- 
toration ought to be calculated. The figures, based 
upon estimated valuations in 1914, varied according to 
the quality of the land (heavy, average, or light), the 
number of years during which it had remained unculti- 
vated, the degree of intensive cultivation (excellent, 
average, or mediocre), and the use of the land for in- 
dustrial or general agricultural purposes. The rulings 
embodied in the circular were made binding upon the 
prefects as administrative agents of the ministry, and 



166 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

those ofiSicials were not only directed to make no con- 
cessions and to appeal from any decisions of a con- 
trary tenor rendered by the cantonal commissions or 
the tribunals of war damages, but they were also re- 
quested to bring the circular to the attention of the 
bodies just named. 

The issuance of this circular, and the action of some 
of the prefects under the rulings which it embodied, 
gave rise to an acute controversy between the sinistres 
and the ministry. As the controversy is still going on, 
judgment upon the merits of the case may properly be 
given only with reserve. It may be pointed out, how- 
ever, that in so far as sinistres are by law denied in- 
demnity for losses which cannot be classed as both 
direct and the result of war, the fundamental trouble 
would appear to be with the law rather than with 
ministerial interpretations of it, and relief can be ob- 
tained only from the Parliament. At the same time, it 
does not appear that any ministry has ever been given 
authority to make rulings which should be binding 
upon the commissions or tribunals to which is in- 
trusted the duty of evaluating war damages. The 
instructions to the prefects to contest every decision 
in which the rulings of the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions were not observed would seem, accordingly, to 
be an extension of administrative authority not easy 
to justify, even if such instructions were not them- 
selves questionable on the ground that they tend to 
retard a settlement which ought by all possible means 
to be hastened. 

The ultimate test of any reconstruction program 
is, of course, the work of restoration actually accom- 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 167 

plished rather than the regulations framed, the 
projects undertaken, or the controversies raised and 
settled. Judged by this standard, the record of agri- 
cultural reconstruction in France merits high praise. 
Figures showing the extent to which the land has been 
cleared of barbed wire and other military encumbrances 
and trenches filled have been given in an earlier chap- 
ter. Of 1,851,039 hectares of cultivable land in the 
invaded departments requiring restoration, 1,754,693 
hectares had been cleared and leveled down to May 1, 
1921, and 1,384,028 hectares were being worked. For 
the harvest of 1920, 728,232 hectares of cereal crops had 
been planted. Tractors or other forms of mechanical 
power were used on 299,227 hectares for plowing, on 
82,627 hectares for miscellaneous work, on 27,833 
hectares for harrowing, and on 36,396 hectares for 
harvesting; while the equivalent of 2,441 working days 
had been devoted to threshing grain. The number of 
cattle carried off or turned loose by the Germans was 
estimated at 523,000, the number of sheep and goats 
at 469,000, and the number of horses and mules at 
367,000. Of this total loss of 1,359,000 head, 120,263 
head of cattle, 121,164 sheep and goats, and 96,303 
horses and mules had been recovered from Germany 
or Belgium or had been obtained through purchase or 
gift. The so-called revolving fund available for agri- 
cultural sinistres, advanced by the state on account of 
damages which the cantonal commissions had evalu- 
ated, aggregated on May 1, 1921, 1,369,538,299 francs. 
To these specific figures are to be added the share of 
the farmers in houses and farm buildings permanently 
constructed and temporary buildings supplied, great 



168 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

quantities of seed furnished, wells cleaned or rebuilt, 
labor supplied through government effort, 2,511,937 
francs advanced for the purchase of food, and special 
priorities for transport of agricultural supplies by rail. 
The forests of the war zone, the restoration of which 
is in charge of a special bureau of the Ministry of 
Agriculture, cover an area of about 650,000 hectares. 
To these are to be added considerable areas which, 
while outside of the war zone, are within the official 
limits of the liberated regions. The losses were very 
heavy. Many of the forests were entirely destroyed by 
shell fire, the trees that were left standing having no 
value except for fuel; others were leveled to supply 
wood for trenches, defensive works, huts, or other mili- 
tary uses; still others were seriously injured by care- 
less or wasteful cutting practiced both by the Germans 
and by the French. A survey of the forests made in 
1919 showed about 100,000 hectares in which the soil 
required to be reconstituted, 100,000 hectares in need 
of replanting or reseeding, and 150,000 hectares which 
had suffered from careless cutting. None of these 350,- 
000 hectares, it was estimated, would be in condition 
to produce timber in less than sixty years. The loss in 
production was estimated at about four per cent, of the 
total French production before the war. The actual 
effect of the losses upon the available timber supply 
was greater than the percentage figure appears to show 
because of the extraordinary demand after the war 
for timber for reconstruction, for the reconstitution of 
railways, highways, and canals, for the restoration of 
the mines, and for the replacement of commercial 
stocks which had been destroyed. 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 169 

The reconstruction work of the forestry service, car- 
ried on through special services organized in each de- 
partment, includes the filling of trenches and other 
excavations, the removal of barbed wire and debris, 
the replanting of trees, the establishment of nurseries 
along the line of the front, and experiments with new 
species. A considerable number of young trees grown 
in the Aisne, the fruit of 25,000,000 seeds presented to 
the government in 1920 by the American Forestry- 
Association, will be ready for transplanting in 1923. 
The Chemin des Dames and the forest of St. Mihiel 
are among the districts to which these American trees 
will be sent. 

The evaluation of forest damages presented both 
novel and delicate problems. In general, the destruc- 
tion of trees might be compared to the destruction of 
buildings, but with the important difference that the 
effects of injuries suffered could not always be readily 
perceived, and that the restoration of forests to their 
pre-war condition was a work of many years. Losses 
due to artillery fire or other military operations were 
particularly serious because they involved the destruc- 
tion or injury of young trees, the destruction or dimi- 
nution of the lumber cut for years to come, and the 
contamination of healthy trees by wounded trees left 
standing. The range of gunfire was wide, and trees 
many kilometres distant from the actual front were 
often injured. The award of damages had to take 
account of the value of standing timber, the value 
which growing trees would have had as lumber had 
they reached maturity, the value of cut lumber in the 
forests, of timber and firewood requisitioned, and of 



170 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

buildings, roads, drains, etc., destroyed within the for- 
est limits. About one-half of the devastated forest 
area was owned by private parties, and since a forest 
represents both capital and revenue, the owners were 
entitled to damages not only for trees and lumber 
destroyed, but also for the loss of revenue during the 
period required for restoration. A fourth of the forests 
were the property of departments or communes, which 
derived a revenue from the sale of timber and firewood, 
and departments and communes were obviously en- 
titled to standing as sinistres. 

A circular of the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, 
November 8, 1920, directed that the dossiers of dam- 
ages to departmental or communal forests, or to those 
belonging to hospitals, asylums, or other public insti- 
tutions, should not be prepared by the representatives 
of the Ministry of Agriculture attached to the can- 
tonal commissions as technical advisers, but by repre- 
sentatives of the forestry service of the latter ministry. 
Private owners, on the other hand, were forbidden to 
call upon the forestry service for assistance, but were 
left to rely upon unofficial experts. The purpose of 
the circular was not, of course, to embarrass the pri- 
vate owner, but to secure for the departments and 
communes the whole time of the government experts. 
Obviously, however, the discrimination was likely to 
increase rather than diminish controversies before the 
cantonal commissions, and to delay still further the 
settlement with individual sinistres. Complaints have 
been numerous that the slowness of the cantonal com- 
missions in all cases in which expert appraisal of dam- 
ages was involved bore hard upon the owners of 



THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE 171 

forest land, many of whom were for this reason pre- 
vented from developing their properties or from con- 
tinuing the employment of labor after the harvesting 
season had closed. As late as September, 1921, how- 
ever, the Minister of the Liberated Regions could give 
no better assurance than that the prefects would be 
asked to urge prompt action in all damage claims in- 
volving expert appraisal.^ 

^ Letter of the Minister to the Marquis de Lubersac, senator from 
the Aisne, in the Journal des Regions Devastees, September 18, 1921. 



CHAPTER X 

THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 

It was clear from the outset that the problem of 
reconstruction, under whatever form it might be pre- 
sented, resolved itself in the final analysis into a 
problem of finance. Ultimately, it was hoped, the 
cost of restoring the liberated regions would be recov- 
ered from Germany, but until the German indemnities 
were actually paid the success of the reconstruction 
program depended upon the ability of the French 
government to find the money necessary to put indus- 
try, agriculture, and social life in general upon their 
feet. In practice three different lines of procedure 
were followed. In the first place, the government 
assumed as a general charge, to be borne by the state 
rather than by the invaded departments, the entire 
cost of clearing the ruins and freeing the land from 
the traces of war, together with the expenses of ad- 
ministering the reconstruction service. Secondly, ad- 
vances of money, materials, or labor were made to the 
sinistres, such advances being on the one hand charged 
against the complete indemnities eventually to be 
awarded, and on the other included in the total of 
reparations which Germany was expected to pay. The 
third part of the program, adopted much later than 
the other two parts, was that which authorized com- 
munes and other sinistres to borrow in open market on 
their own account. 

172 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 173 

Some of the financial measures adopted by the gov- 
ernment have akeady been referred to in the chapters 
dealing with the law of war damages and the recon- 
struction of industry and agriculture. The extension 
of financial aid to particular classes of sinistres was, 
however, only a special phase of a general policy to 
which the government, notwithstanding some hesita- 
tion and irregularity, on the whole adhered. It is the 
leading features of that policy that have now to be 
outlined. 

The beginning of financial aid to the invaded regions 
dates from December 26, 1914, when a credit of 300,- 
000,000 francs was opened with the Ministry of the 
Interior. This fund, created at a time when the war 
had only just begun and when its ultimate ravages 
were but dimly apprehended, remained for many 
months the only source from which the general needs 
of reconstruction could be supplied. Not until the 
evaluation of war damages was well under way and the 
reconstruction of industry had begun to take form 
were larger additional credits provided. The first of 
these larger credits was opened on February 11, 1919, 
for the purpose of retiring the loans contracted dur- 
ing the war by cities, communes, regional unions of 
communes, chambers of commerce, and savings banks. 
The amount made available for this purpose was 1,500,- 
000,000 francs, a part of the local issues being ex- 
changed for national currency and the remainder for 
short time national defense bonds. 

At the moment of the adoption of the war damages 
law of April 17, 1919, no less than nine different classes 
of advances or revolving funds had already been estab- 



174 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

lished by law or by ministerial decree. The provisions 
relating to these several classes are briefly as follows: 

1. Restoration of houses to habitable condition. Ad- 
vances of money or materials for urgent use, without hmit 
as to amount, were authorized, payment to be made either 
through the performance of the necessary work by the state, 
or by the delivery of an order for materials, or by the pay- 
ment of money. Advances of this kind were available for 
industrial sinistres as well as for others. 

2. Reconstruction of buildings. Advances were author- 
ized for the restoration of either industrial or agricultural 
buildings, even if entirely destroyed, where without such 
restoration the industry or occupation could not be resumed. 
These advances were not to exceed, in connection with other 
advances, 60 per cent, of the approximate total damages. 
Twenty per cent, might be paid in advance to enable the 
sinistre to begin work. 

3. Personal property of families. The limit of advances 
was fixed at 1,000 francs for the head of a family and 200 
francs for each other member. These advances were usually 
paid in money, but might be paid in kind. They could be 
demanded whether the sinistre returned to the commune or 
not. 

4. Professional equipment. Advances to an aggregate of 
10,000 francs, but not in excess of 25 per cent, of the esti- 
mated damages, were allowed for instruments, pharma- 
ceutical supplies, etc. Payment might be made in either 
money or kind. 

5. Local mechanics. The prefects were authorized to 
grant advances, in money or kind, for tools or other neces- 
sary equipment. 

6. Revolving funds. The purpose of these funds, the 
amounts of which were reimbursable out of indemnities, was 
to place at the disposal of the sinistre, without interest, 
sufficient resources to enable him to begin the work of 
reconstruction at once. There were three classes of bene- 
ficiaries: 

(a) Farmers. Advances were allowed to a maximum of 
2,000 francs per hectare for land restored to cultivation, 
2,500 francs per hectare if blooded stock had to be renewed 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 175 

and 3,000 francs per hectare for vineyards whose cultivation 
was specially laborious. 

(b) Small merchants and manujacturers and local me- 
chanics. Advances were not in general to exceed 3,000 
francs. 

(c) Large manujacturers. The basis of advances was 
the number of workers employed and continuous operation 
for three months. The allowance for each workman was 
1,200 francs, of which 1,000 francs was for wages. The 
total of all advances was not to exceed 75 per cent, of the 
approximate damages. 

7. Municipalities. Unlimited advances, approved by a 
special commission, were allowed for the replacement of 
office fixtures, vehicles, appliances for fire protection, and 
other necessary movable equipment of local government. 

8. Dossiers of damages. One per cent, of the approxi- 
mate amount involved was allowed for the expenses of 
preparing dossiers of damages, and one per cent, for pre- 
paring the proposals for rebuilding or restoration. Where 
the sinistre was a cooperative reconstruction society these 
percentages were doubled for the purpose of creating a 
revolving fund. 

9. Enemy requisitions. The advances were not to exceed 
75 per cent, of the amount involved as shown by receipts 
or other papers. 

In addition to these various advances, sinistres 
whose damages had been evaluated by cantonal com- 
missions prior to the adoption of the war damages law 
of April 17, 1919, were entitled to advances of not 
exceeding 75 per cent, on those evaluations, of not 
exceeding 90 per cent, if the sinistre was a cooperative 
reconstruction society.^ 

The war damages law of 1919 still further extended 
the system by authorizing advances of 25 per cent, of 
the amount of the indemnity in the case of sinistres 
who proposed to reemploy their indemnities and whose 

^Bulletin dcs Regions Liberies, July 21, 1919.. 



176 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

claims had been passed by the cantonal commissions, 
the advance to be not less than 3,000 francs nor more 
than 100,000 francs. The Minister of the Liberated 
Regions and the Minister of Finance acting jointly 
were further empowered to grant other advances for 
urgent needs on such terms as they might think 
proper. 

The amounts placed to the credit of the prefects in 
the invaded departments for the payment of advances 
under these various heads aggregated, in the first six 
months of 1919, 753,500,000 francs. This figure does 
not include the value of advances in kind made during 
the same period by the offices of industrial and agri- 
cultural reconstruction. 

Appropriations and increases of appropriations fol- 
lowed one another with amazing rapidity. On July 
26, 1919, the maximum of credits for industrial recon- 
struction, which three days before had been fixed at 
20,000,000 francs, was raised to 80,000,000 francs, one- 
half being allotted to the Lille sector, with the further 
proviso that if the amounts allotted to each of the 
other sectors proved insufficient they would, on the 
application of the prefects, be increased to 20,000,000 
francs. On July 15, 50,000,000 francs were advanced to 
the Central Purchasing Agency (Comptoir Central 
d'Achats) ; on August 25 this was increased to 100,- 
000,000 francs. The payment in money of advances 
on account of war damages presently threatened to 
involve a dangerous inflation of the currency, and in 
November the payment of three-fourths of the amount 
of the large advances in short-time national defense 
bonds was prescribed. 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 177 

With a view to facilitating the payment of indemni- 
ties and advances an agreement was made on July 7, 
1919, by the Minister of Finance with a financial or- 
ganization known as the Credit National, under which 
that organization became the financial agent of the 
state. The Credit National undertook to pay all in- 
demnities awarded under the law of war damages, to- 
gether with all advances under the same law running 
for not more than twenty-five years, and in addition 
to grant loans in aid of industry and commerce to 
a total of not more than 500,000,000 francs. The 
funds for the purpose were to be provided by bond 
issues authorized by the state, repayable by the 
state with interest in annual installments. The agree- 
ment, approved by law on October 10, gave to the 
state the right of supervising the operations of 
the Credit National, and made the securities of 
the corporation a legal investment for communes, 
charitable organizations, and societies of a public 
character. 

In May, 1920, the Credit National was authorized 
to issue securities to the amount of 4,000,000,000 
francs, in 8,000,000 shares of 500 francs each, bearing 
interest at five per cent, and repayable in not more 
than sixty-five years. Until 1940 the holders of the 
shares were to benefit by annual drawings, embodying 
the lottery feature familiar in French public issues, 
and aggregating 20,000,000 francs. Beginning in 1940 
the outstanding shares might be repaid at par. A fur- 
ther issue of 3,000,000,000 francs, bearing interest at 
six per cent, and repayable ^t the rate of 500,000,000 
francs annually beginning with 1931, was authorized in 



178 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

September, 1921, and a fourth issue was approved in 
January, 1922. 

Down to October 31, 1921, the Credit National had 
disbursed to sinistres, in indemnities and advances, 
7,607,853,123 francs. Its open accounts numbered 
700,696. It had loaned to industrial or commercial 
undertakings 248,474,500 francs. Its shares, issued at 
a figure slightly less than their par value of 500 francs, 
were quoted at the end of November at about 465 
francs per share. The relatively small volume of loans 
to industrial and commercial enterprises is explained 
by the fact that the Credit National agreed not to 
make such loans until the payment of indemnities and 
advances had been organized. Accordingly, it did not 
begin to develop this branch of its business until the 
second half of 1920, and its industrial and commercial 
loans, all of which require the approval of the Minister 
of Finance, amounted at the end of that year to only 
31,045,000 francs. So far as its relations with the state 
are concerned, the Credit National seems to have per- 
formed its duties with energy and efficiency, in full 
reoegnition of its obligations as the custodian and 
administrator of public funds. 

We come now to the budget. M. Andre Tardieu has 
pointed out that there is not, in the proper sense of the 
term, a budget for the liberated regions. "Each month 
the minister has a contest with his colleague of the 
finance department. Each month the prefects are in- 
formed at the last moment of the credits which they 
will dispense in the month following." ^ The point is 
well taken, and indicates one of the weaknesses of the 
financial policy to which reference will be made later. 

^ U Illustration, June 4, 1921. 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 179 

Nevertheless, both the totals and the items of the 
expenditures made by the government from year to 
year for reconstruction are ascertainable, and it is only 
by studying them that the magnitude of the effort 
which France has made and is still making can be 
understood. 

The total expenditures on all accounts for recon- 
struction purposes, railway reconstruction excepted,* 
amounted at the end of 1920 to 20,964,638,481 francs. 
About nine-tenths of this amount, or 17,862,525,006 
francs, was spent in the years 1919 and 1920. Of the 
total, 448,698,793 francs represented the cost of central 
and local administration in the ten invaded depart- 
ments, 4,149,535,860 francs the cost of labor and mate- 
rials purchased, 13,924,251,920 francs the amounts paid 
in indemnities and advances to sinistres, 1,037,351,906 
francs the cost of relief of various kinds granted to 
sinistres, 900,000,000 francs the expenses of the office 
of industrial reconstitution, 400,000,000 francs the ex- 
penses of the office of agricultural reconstitution, and 
104,800,000 francs the expenditures for motoculture. 
All of these funds were raised by domestic loans, 3,200,- 
000,000 francs being provided by the Credit National.^ 

Of the 13,924,251,920 francs paid to sinistres in ad- 
vances and indemnities, 9,655,158,874 francs repre- 
sented advances of money on account of indemnities, 
82,373,497 francs indemnities for which certificates had 
been issued, 30,169,903 francs interest, 4,143,339,417 
francs the reimbursement of advances in kind to sin- 

^The expenses of railway reconstruction are not included in the 
budgets, but are carried in a special account under a law of December 
30, 1917. 

''These figures and those which follow are taken from the report 
of M. d'Aubigny, of the budget commission, submitted to the Cham- 
ber of Deputies on February 21, 1921. 



180 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

istres by the offices of industrial and agricultural recon- 
struction and on motoculture account, and 13,210,227 
francs advances for the reparation of damages caused 
by explosions or other accidents. 

How do these expenditures compare with the volume 
of war losses to be repaired? Provisional estimates of 
war damages in all the departments, including those 
outside the limits of the so-called liberated regions, 
fixed the total at 33,488,560,000 francs. The provi- 
sional aggregate of damages as set forth in the declara- 
tions of sinistres amounted, on December 31, 1920, to 
34,665,765,000 francs, or 1,177,205,000 francs more 
than the provisional estimates. These figures were 
based upon estimated values in 1914. To them are to 
be added the damages sustained by state property and 
the railways, the amount of these two items being 
estimated at 1,000,000,000 francs. The claims entered 
by sinistres are in many cases excessive, and the total 
indemnities awarded by the cantonal commissions and 
tribunals of war damages will perhaps not exceed 30,- 
000,000,000 francs. 

Assuming that the latter figure will be found to be 
correct, the total amount of damages of all kinds, in- 
cluding the cost of replacement at present prices, can 
be calculated with approximate accuracy. Down to 
the end of 1920 the cost of replacement of injured or 
destroyed property had been on the average five times 
the estimated value of the property in 1914. The ap- 
proximately 15,000,000,000 francs ah-eady paid to sin- 
istres in indemnities, advances, and relief may, accord- 
ingly, be taken to represent a value of one-fifth of that 
amount, or 3,000,000,000 francs, on the basis of 1914. 
Deducting this amount, plus 1,000,000,000 francs rep- 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 181 

resenting the value at the same date of the damaged 
property of the railways and the state, leaves 26,000,- 
000,000 francs still due to the sinistres. 

The cost of reimbursing this amount in values of 
1921 or later depends, of course, upon the coefficient 
that is employed. With the coefficient 4 (a fair aver- 
age in 1921) the cost would be 104,000,000,000 francs; 
with the coefficient 3, 78,000,000,000 francs; with the 
coefficient 2.5 (the lowest figure to which the cost of 
replacement seems likely to fall in the near future), 
65,000,000,000 francs. Assuming that the payment of 
indemnities to sinistres will be spread over at least ten 
years, and that changes in prices and improved organi- 
zation will cause the coefficient to fall, the adoption of 
a coefficient midway between 4 and 2.5, say 3.25,^ as 
representing the average cost of replacement from 1921 
onward, brings the total of damages still to be reim- 
bursed to 75,500,000,000 francs. Adding the cost of 
restoring state and railway property, for most of which 
a coefficient of from 4 to 5 must be employed, gives a 
grand total of about 80,000,000,000 francs as the cost 
of reconstruction after January 1, 1921. 

The budget commission of 1921 expressed the opin- 
ion that this figure ought to be the maximum to be 
anticipated. It was pointed out, however, that no 
considerable reduction in the cost of replacement was 
to be looked for without a reduction in wages, and that 

*In the spring of 1921 the Minister of the Liberated Regions 
announced that the coefficient of 3.25 ought not to be exceeded in 
the reconstruction of buildings. On September 23, at Roye, he 
found 3.85 a reasonable coefficient for workingmen's houses in the 
Somme (Paris Matin, September 24, 1921). At the end of November, 
during a visit to the Ardennes, he insisted upon the application of 
the coefficient 3.5 "or at least the smallest possible increase over the 
valuation of 1914" (Paris Temps, November 23, 1921). 



182 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

wages could not be expected to fall until the cost of 
living in the invaded departments had declined. Such 
decline could come only when the invaded departments 
became once more, what they had been before the 
war, producers and exporters of food instead of im- 
porters; and a return to that condition could not be 
achieved until housing for farmers and farm laborers 
and shelter for cattle had been restored and village life 
had been resumed. 

An analysis of the figures from this point of view 
gives the case for reconstruction a different aspect. 
While the advances to mines had reached 84.64 per 
cent, of the estimated damages on the basis of values 
in 1914, and those to other industries 112.54 per cent., 
damages not industrial had been reimbursed only to 
the extent of 21.75 per cent., and this notwithstanding 
the fact that non-industrial damages represented 78 
per cent, of the total. The reparation of damages to 
real property of an industrial character had absorbed 
25 per cent, of the money advances, while the repara- 
tion of similar damages to property not industrial had 
absorbed 27 per cent. The total of advances, however, 
in money and materials on account of damages to real 
property was, in 1920, about 9,000,000,000 francs, and 
of this only 1,400,000,000 francs had gone to restore 
non-industrial losses. 

It is interesting to compare the estimates of the 
budget commission with the figures upon which the 
German indemnities and reparations are based. If the 
mean coefficient of 3.25 proposed by the budget com- 
mission be employed, the total cost of reconstruction, 
counting the 15,000,000,000 francs already paid and the 
80,000,000,000 francs remaining to be provided, would 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 183 

be 95,000,000,000 francs. With the highest coefficient 
proposed, namely 4, the total would be increased to 
123,000,000,000 francs. Figures prepared by the vari- 
ous ministers late in 1920 for submission to the Repa- 
rations Commission aggregated 232,482,000,000 francs 
for indemnities and reparations of all kinds, of which 
amount 140,000,000,000 francs was claimed for the 
liberated regions. The claims actually presented to the 
Reparations Commission in February, 1921, amounted 
to 214,416,596,120 francs, equal in value to 136,000,- 
000,000 gold marks, not counting 4,125,000,000 francs 
demanded in the form of interest. The Reparations 
Commission in April allotted to France 52 per cent, of 
132,000,000,000 gold marks, or 68,400,000,000 marks. 
If it may be assumed that the reduction of about 7.75 
per cent, in the claims presented in February, as com- 
pared with the previous estimates, applied to the esti- 
mates for the liberated regions in the same proportion 
as to the whole, the estimated cost of restoring the 
liberated regions was 131,500,000,000 francs. The 
Reparations Commission further reduced the total 
claims by about three per cent. The same propor- 
tionate reduction applied to the liberated regions gives 
a final estimate of 127,555,000,000 francs, or 4,555,- 
000,000 francs more than the maximum estimate of the 
budget commission. 

The allocation to France of 52 per cent, of the total 
reparations obviously put an end to the hope of recov- 
ering from Germany the whole cost of reconstruction. 
With the adoption of that decision, reconstruction, in 
the words of M. Andre Tardieu, ceased to be an inter- 
national problem and became a domestic one. The 
most that could be expected from Germany for all pur- 



184 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

poses was 52 per cent, of about 205,839,000,000 francs, 
or approximately 107,088,000,000 francs. The minis- 
terial estimate for the liberated regions was approxi- 
mately 60 per cent, of the total. On this basis the 
proportion of the German indemnities available for the 
liberated regions would amount to about 64,252,000,- 
000 francs, or more than 30,000,000,000 francs less 
than the lowest estimate of the budget commission. 
This deficit must be met by taxes paid by the French 
people themselves. 

The credits voted for 1921 were prodigious. For the 
months of January and February 6,000,000,000 francs 
was made available for the payment of indemnities and 
advances to sinistres, 4,750,000,000 francs for indus- 
trial reconstruction, and 2,443,007,605 francs for the 
miscellaneous expenses of the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions. This latter item was increased by 
856,473,005 francs for March, 807,642,950 francs for 
April, and 766,144,965 francs for May. For the month 
of April a further credit of 150,000,000 francs was 
voted for industrial reconstruction. The budget law 
of May 31, devoted to special expenses recoverable 
under the terms of the treaty of Versailles, carried 
9,079,676,114 francs for the general account of the 
Ministry of the Liberated Regions and an additional 
credit of 1,750,000,000 francs for industrial reconstruc- 
tion. The total credits voted to May 31 aggregated 
26,602,944,639 francs, to which is further to be added 
a supplementary credit of 930,000,000 francs voted in 
December on account of expenses for the current year. 
Adding the amounts expended from 1915 to 1920 inclu- 
sive gives a grand total of 48,497,583,120 francs. These 
figures do not include appropriations for railways, 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 185 

mines, and historical monuments, of which the propor- 
tion applicable to the liberated regions cannot be ascer- 
tained with certainty from the budget statements, or 
numerous other items credited to different ministries 
but actually applied to reconstruction in the invaded 
departments. The aggregate of these indeterminate 
credits would swell the total by several milliards.^ 

Until July, 1920, sinistres were not permitted to 
borrow on the security of their future indemnities. 
The budget law of July 31 removed this restriction in 
the case of sinistres whose damages equaled or ex- 
ceeded one million francs,^ at the same time allowing 
sinistres, including cities, communes, and corporations, 
whose claims were less than that amount to combine 
for the purpose of taking advantage of the law. Such 
sinistres or groups of sinistres were permitted by the 
law to enter into agreements with the government, 
through the Minister of Finance, under which the 

^The budget for 1922, voted by the Chambers on December 31, 
carried total credits of 204,509,000 francs for reconstruction work of 
various kinds, not including large allowances to functionaries in the 
liberated regions on account of the high cost of living, and 186,323,000 
francs for reconstruction in Alsace-Lorraine. The special budget of 
expenditures recoverable from Germany, which at the time of writing 
was still before the Chambers, contemplated an expenditure of 7,000,- 
000,000 francs, in addition to 8,000,000,000 francs to be derived from 
loans issued by the Credit National and 4,000,000,000 francs from 
loans issued by groups of sinistres. The total credits for the year, 
accordingly, would amount to 15,000,000,000 francs, or 19,000,000,000 
francs if the loans of sinistres reached the figure of 4,000,000,000 
francs fixed as a limit by the law of July 31. 1920. The reporter 
of the budget, M. de Lasteyrie, later Minister of Finance in the 
Poincare Cabinet, estimated that the amounts advanced to January 
1, 1922, on account of recoverable expenditures would reach a total 
of 80,000,000,000 francs, of which 45,000,000,000 francs represented 
damages to property, 29,000,000,000 francs damages to persons, and 
6,000,000,000 francs interest. These figures, however, it should be 
pointed out, are for the whole of France and not exclusively for the 
liberated regions. 

^A proposed law submitted by the Minister of the Liberated 
Regions in November, 1921, reduced this limit to 200,000 francs and 
further enlarged the privilege of borrowing. 



186 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

indemnities due were to be paid in annual installments 
extending over from fifteen to thirty years, with inter- 
est at six per cent, per annum. With the bond and its 
attached coupons which embodied this agreement as 
collateral, the sinistre was at liberty to borrow through 
an approved bank, the bank acting as a trustee and 
paying the proceeds of the loan on statements from 
government agents that the work undertaken had been 
done. The first group of sinistres to take advantage of 
this provision was the association of collieries of the 
Nord and the Pas-de-Calais, whose issue of six per 
cent, bonds to the amount of 1,200,000,000 francs has 
already been referred to. In this instance the loan 
enjoyed the added security of a capital of 50,000,000 
francs furnished by the companies. The loan was 
promptly taken by the public, and in fact was over- 
subscribed. 

On April 9, 1921, the city of Albert issued a loan of 
25,000,000 francs which was quickly absorbed. The 
success of this loan, together with the announcement 
of two others to be offered by Reims and Verdun, pre- 
cipitated a lively controversy between the Minister of 
Finance and the Minister of the Liberated Regions. 
The Minister of the Liberated Regions, M. Louis Lou- 
cheur, to whose energetic administration the rapid 
progress of industrial reconstruction was largely due, 
championed the municipal loans on the ground that 
they would not only aid the financing of reconstruction 
but would also stimulate local interest. The Minister 
of Finance, M. Paul Doumer, opposed them on the 
ground that such loans tended to limit the market for 
national loans. There were rumors that the Reims 
and Verdun loans had been held up and that a Cabinet 



THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 187 

crisis was threatened. The policy of M. Loucheur pre- 
vailed, however, and in June the two loans, that of 
Reims for 120,000,000 francs apd that of Verdun for 
60,000,000 francs, were authorized. A fourth loan of 
15,000,000 francs for the commune of La Bassee in the 
Nord department was authorized in September. In 
December the commune of Soissons was authorized to 
borrow $6,000,000 in Canada. A loan of 150,000,000 
francs by the Nord department, also authorized in 
December, was promptly subscribed. A large loan, 
planned by an association of the mayors of the invaded 
departments for the benefit of all the devastated com- 
munes, was under consideration at the time of writing. 
How long the burden imposed by huge credits for 
reconstruction can be borne^ even with the aid of the 
German indemnities, is a question primarily for the 
financiers. The demand for inflation of the currency 
is at the moment strong in France, and so long as the 
government continues its present scale of military and 
civil expenditures, maintains a swollen list of func- 
tionaries, and meets recurring deficits by further bor- 
rowing instead of by levying equitably upon the im- 
mense wealth which France actually possesses, that 
demand with all its dangerous implications is likely to 
increase. On the other hand it may be pointed out 
that the restoration of the mines, the factories, and the 
farms of the invaded departments adds each year to 
the store of material values available for the payment 
of national debts, and thai; the rich resources of Alsace 
and Lorraine are now a part of the wealth of France. 
It cannot be denied that the financial outlook is seri- 
ous, but it does not as yet spell catastrophe. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 

It will be convenient to examine at this point some 
of the more important criticisms which have been 
voiced in France and elsewhere regarding the recon- 
struction policy of the government. Certain of these 
criticisms have already been briefly alluded to, but so 
many of the objections which have been urged to thfe 
government policy, either as a whole or in the details 
of its practical application, ultimately involve the 
question of money that they could not well be consid- 
ered at length until the financial operations had them- 
selves been outlined. Now that the administrative and 
financial sides of the case have both been presented, 
the criticisms to which the reconstruction program 
has been subjected may properly be weighed. I leave 
out of account, as unworthy of serious attention, the 
more or less superficial strictures of casual travelers, 
most of whom have never seen the invaded depart- 
ments as a whole and are unacquainted with what has 
been planned or done, and also those criticisms of the 
French press or of French political circles whose main 
purpose is to discredit or embarrass the government. 
It hardly need be added that the indiscriminate praise 
which the work of reconstruction has occasionally re- 
ceived is equally beside the mark. 

I cannot do better than to begin by summarizing 
^ 188 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 189 

some of the statements with which M. d'Aubigny, the 
reporter of the budget commission of the Chamber of 
Deputies in 1921, prefaces his examination of the pro- 
posed budget for that year. 

If, writes M. d'Aubigny, one interrogates the mayors 
or the sinistres in the villages of the devastated area, 
the same complaint is everywhere repeated. For two 
years, those questioned will tell you, we have worked 
courageously and willingly to restore our villages and 
our land, but how do we stand? Most of the promises 
made to us have not been kept, and we are losing hope. 
Our temporary houses, built of green lumber, let in the 
wind and the rain, they are cold in winter and hot in 
summer, and they are too small for families with many 
children. The leaky roofs of our houses and granges 
are still covered with paper, and tiles are unobtainable. 
Why? Because our claims to damages have not been 
settled and permanent rebuilding cannot proceed. The 
first advance for the reconstruction of stables and 
granges came promptly enough, but for the others, 
thanks to formalities, we have to wait weeks or 
months. We are far from materials and supplies, 
labor is scarce, we cannot lodge workmen who other- 
wise might be induced to come, we cannot guarantee 
regular payments to contractors. The food supplies 
which reach us at second or third hand are excessively 
dear, and we lack food for our cattle. The statistics of 
the Ministry of the Liberated Regions show enormous 
areas returned to cultivation, but the size of the crops 
is a different story. And why is living so dear? Chiefly 
because as yet we have nothing to sell. 

Ask the president of a rural cooperative society for 



190 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

reconstruction, continues M. d'Aubigny, and he will 
tell you that after having organized the society on a 
model plan prepared by the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions, everything had presently to be made over to 
conform to new laws and decrees. We have estab- 
lished a plan of work for 1921, but we have as yet 
received no advances and no share in revolving funds, 
and in consequence cannot make contracts. The can- 
tonal commissions refuse to consider dossiers of dam- 
ages except in the order in which the papers are j&led; 
they will not approve the sums which we pay to con- 
tractors even when those sums correspond to the co- 
efficients established by the technical committees of 
the ministry. Property lines have not been run, we 
are not allowed to build pennanently without a plan, 
and our plans are not yet approved. The law may be 
all right for the cities, but it is useless for the villages. 

The president of a cooperative society in a large city 
is no more encouraging. Almost everything here, he 
will tell you, has been injured. We have done what we 
could with the credits allowed, but payments have been 
so small and so slow as to defeat our efforts. Many of 
our members who were able to do so have had to pay 
contractors out of their private means, otherwise the 
work would have stopped. In spite of all that we can 
do the commissions persist in passing upon our per- 
sonal property losses, to the neglect of the real prop- 
erty which is more important. As for the cost of labor, 
it is prohibitive. 

Numerous contractors were to be found who, after 
having incurred large expense in erecting workshops, 
were unable, through lack of government credits^ to 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 191 

obtain more than a few workmen. The government 
depots of material contained roofing tiles brought by 
sea from Marseille to Dunkerque or Calais and trans- 
ported thence by rail and camion, other tiles brought 
from Holland, and timber from Sweden and Finland, 
notwithstanding that all of these materials might 
easily have been procured at much less expense from 
Germany. Sections of portable houses were left to 
deteriorate in the open air, while near-by hangars were 
stacked with bags of cement which, because of pre- 
vious long exposure, was now useless. Great numbers 
of workers' houses, shops, and other buildings were 
going to ruin because Parliament had insisted that 
state work should be suspended. Every sinistre com- 
plaine'd of the army of functionaries, the lack of uni- 
formity or coordination, and the overwhelming mass of 
dossiers. 

Thus M. d'Aubigny. For the remedy of these evils, 
the picture of which appears not to have been regarded 
as overdrawn^ the budget commission proposed the fol- 
lowing reforms for 1921 : 

1. The suppression of state work, the simplification of 
administrative routine, the diminution of the number of 
papers required to be prepared, the unification of adminis- 
trative methods in the different departments and of the 
different series of prices and coefficients, and the encourage- 
ment of individual initiative. 

2. The suppression of provisional jconstruction and the 
system of advances for labor, the delivery of definitive 
certificates of damages for real property, the simphfication 
of the process by which advances of indemnity to be re- 
employed were made, and payments at fixed dates. 

3. The grouping of sinistres in cooperative reconstruction 
gocieties^ the determination by the state and the coopera- 



192 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

tives of an order of urgency or priority, the examination 
of claims by the cantonal commissions in accordance with 
this order of urgency, the establishment of an annual pro- 
gram of work with credits corresponding to the program, 
and the cession to the cooperatives of all construction mate- 
rial, whether already installed or not, acquired by the state. 

4. The modification of existing laws in regard to the 
running of property and street lines so as to insure prompt 
treatment of those questions, and the determination of the 
proportion of cost to be borne by the state. 

5. The modification of certain regulations regarding pub- 
lic health. 

6. A general organization of labor in the liberated 
regions, arrangements for foreign labor and for the delivery 
of material in kind by Germany, and the regulation of 
prices. 

The carrying out of this comprehensive program, 
the realization of which would have met most of the 
criticisms to which the budget commission referred, 
was by no means equally easy at all points. Orders 
had already been issued by the Ministry of the Lib- 
erated Regions on February 5, 1921, to bring all direct 
state work to a close at the end of the year. The ques- 
tion of provisional houses was more difficult. The 
prefects insisted that appropriations for such houses 
should continue tq be made for 1921. The commis- 
sion, while admitting the impossibility of undoing 
what had been done, condemned the housing policy 
strongly as wasteful and ill-advised, and inquired 
sharply why different plans which had been worked out 
in 1918 and 1919 by the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions had not been put into operation. It was 
further pointed out that even if temporary wooden 
houses were in some cases necessary, it would have 
been better policy to obtain them from Germany, since 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 193 

facilities for their manufacture did not exist in France 
in 1914 and the facilities that now existed were a 
creation of the war and primarily for military purposes. 
The demand by the sinistres for the suppression of 
advances and the prompt delivery of certificates of 
damages raised one of the most serious questions with 
which a reform of reconstruction methods had to deal. 
The actual situation is best described in M. d'Au- 
bigny's own words.^ 

"A sinistre, desiring to reconstruct his farm buildings, has 
had his statement of damages prepared by an architect and 
has asked for the advance of 60 per cent, to which he is 
entitled by law. Assuring that the actual loss sustained 
has been evaluated at 30,000 francs, and that the coefficient 
adopted by the technical conmiittee of the department for 
the supplementary indemnity is 6, the claim presented will 
be 30,000 X 6 = 180,000 francs. 

"In certain departments the administration has been very 
generous in granting advances, and it is possible that the 
sinistre may have received 108,000 francs, exactly 60 per 
cent, of his claim. Thereupon he has gone to work in good 
faith, and has devoted the whole amount of his advance to 
the reconstruction of his farm buildings other than his house. 
He has then taken his accounts to the cantonal commission, 
with the statement: 'Here is what I have expended on my 
buildings. There remains only to rebuild my house. All I 
ask of you is the amount necessary for that purpose.' 

"Imagine his surprise when the commission reply: 'We 
have nothing to do with advances that are not made with 
our approval ; we examine only the total of your losses and 
apply to it the coefficient which we deem equitable. Your 
estimate of actual losses is exaggerated. We decide, upon 
expert advice, to reduce it to 25,000 francs. The coefficient 
6 is perhaps well enough for the work of repair. It will 
not do for an aggregate of new construction. We consider 
that the proper coefficient is 5.' 

*The passage which follows has been slightly condensed in trans- 
lation. 



194 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

"The account then appears as follows: 

Actual loss (value in 1914) 25,000 francs 

CoeflBcient of supplementary costs 5 " 

Total indemnity 125,000 francs 

Deduction for advance received 108,000 " 

Balance to be accorded 17,000 francs 

"The sinistre thus finds himself in presence of a sum less 
by a fourth or a half of what is needed to rebuild his house 
and complete the work of restoration." 

Even more regrettable, M. d'Aubigny added, was the 
fact that in various departmental, notably in the 
Somme, sinistres had received from the commissions 
awards whose total, including actual loss and supple- 
ments, was less than the amount of the advances which 
had been made; with the result that sinistres who had 
completed only two-thirds or three-fourths of the 
necessary restoration actually found themselves in- 
debted to the state. What will happen if the coeffi- 
cient falls to 3 or 2.50? Obviously, many sinistres will 
be ruined and reconstruction will stop. 

The remedy for the evil, in the opinion of the com- 
mission, was to be found only in an immediate simpli- 
fication of the elaborate and time-consuming formali- 
ties which the administration had prescribed, and 
which as a rule involved a delay of three or four 
months between the time when a request for an ad- 
vance was filed and the time when the money was 
received. A speedier decision regarding indemnities 
and the establishment of fixed dates of payment was 
even more important for the cooperative societies than 
for the individual sinistres, because the societies were 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 195 

required by law to adopt a program of construction 
and to decide questions of urgency. So long as claims 
to damages were indefinitely held up and payments 
made irregularly, cooperative reconstruction could 
with diflSculty go on at all. 

The budget commission was particularly severe in 
its criticism of the excessive number of functionaries, 
the continuance of bureaux or services no longer neces- 
sary, the unduly large orders given for materials and 
the high prices paid, the alteration of contracts against 
the advice of technical committees, and the wasteful 
and extravagant expenditures for temporary or semi- 
durable houses. A number of light railways on which 
considerable sums had been spent were condemned as 
unnecessary, and the opinion was expressed that the 
whole subject of railway transport should be trans- 
ferred to the Ministry of Public Works, to whose juris- 
diction it naturally belonged. A minute examination 
of the offices of industrial and agricultural reconstitu- 
tion, the latter of which had already been made the 
subject of a special inquiry, disclosed uncommercial 
methods which were adjudged to be extravagant and 
wasteful. 

The substance of the various recommendations of 
the budget commission was that the state should cease 
altogether to be either buyer, seller, contractor, or 
exploiter in any matters in which state property or 
state interests were not involved, and that the com- 
mercial methods which obtained before the war should 
be resumed. There should be a fixed budget for the 
Ministry of the Liberated Regions corresponding to the 
resources of the treasury from year to year, and th^ 



196 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

powers of the ministry should be enlarged wherever 
necessary to insure proper centralization, but the func- 
tions of the office should be limited to those of evalua- 
tion, control, and payment. 

It is evident from the summary which has just been 
given that the budget commission took on the whole a 
highly individualistic view of the reconstruction prob- 
lem, that a marked restriction of government activity 
for the future seemed to it not only highly desirable 
but imperative, and that it was distinctly favorable 
to the participation of Germany in the work of 
restoration. 

The precise weight of its criticisms, on the other 
hand, is not easy to gauge impartially and in any case 
is somewhat a matter of opinion. Unquestionably 
there had been both extravagance and waste, and the 
list of salaried functionaries was undoubtedly exces- 
sive. Neither in purchase nor in sale had commercial 
standards always been observed, and the market value 
of materials and their cost to the state or the sinistre 
did not always correspond. It was clear that industrial 
reconstruction had been favored at the expense of 
agriculture, and that the endless red tape of official 
procedure had embarrassed cooperative societies and 
individual sinistres at almost every turn. The provi- 
sion of a labor supply had not been forthcoming, and it 
was at least a question whether the huge credits voted 
for reconstruction purposes had not in consequence 
exceeded the human resources available for rebuilding. 
The millions which had been spent on temporary 
houses, few of which had permanent value for any 
purpose, would have gone far toward rebuilding the 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 197 

houses that had been injured or destroyed if a system- 
atic plan for permanent reconstruction could have been 
adopted at the beginning. The evaluation of war 
damages was admittedly a complicated task, but with 
approximately four hundred cantonal commissions in 
operation as early as July, 1919, the interminable 
delays are difficult to excuse. 

These are weighty criticisms not to be ignored. 
They are not, however, the whole story. There are 
other considerations which, in any fair view of the 
question, should equally be weighed. The reconstruc- 
tion of the devastated departments was not wholly a 
matter of organization and mathematics; it was also 
a question of politics, of public opinion, and of class 
rivalry. The patriotic determination to restore as 
quickly as possible what the war had destroyed was 
crossed by the fear, shown throughout the long debate 
in Parliament over the law of war damages, that unless 
the reemplo3rment of indemnities was insisted upon 
large numbers of sinistres would not return. The dis- 
solution of the union sacree which repressed party 
strife while the war was going on revived, after the 
armistice, the class controversies and struggles of peas- 
ants, farmers, artisans, industrialists, and capitalists 
which have long played leading parts in French poli- 
tics, and which expose every benefit obtained by one 
class to the hostile criticisms of those who do not share 
in it. There was the powerful tradition that the 
peasant farmers, hereditary enemies of the skilled 
workers and of people who live in towns, ought first 
to be considered, that the restoration of a small farm 
was of greater social importance than the rebuilding of 



198 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

a factory or the reopening of a mine^ and that the de- 
sires and prejudices of individuals took rank before the 
welfare of the community as a whole. 

There were directions, too, in which the element of 
time combined with that of politics to produce uncer- 
tainty and delay. The question of the German repa- 
rations and indemnities, dragging its weary length over 
twenty-two long months after the peace before a deci- 
sion was reached, and kept in evidence even to-day by 
reactionary politicians for whom the war has not yet 
ceased, clouded the whole path of gavernment finance 
so far as reconstruction was concerned. On the other 
hand, until that question was settled and the natural 
feeling of bitterness and resentment born of the war 
had moderated, dealings with Germany were prac- 
tically impossible. It would have been easy, as the 
budget commission of 1921 suggested, to obtain build- 
ing material from Germany or to recruit German labor 
for reconstruction work, but public opinion was hostile 
so long as no reparation payments had been made. If 
labor was scarce in the liberated regions notwithstand- 
ing that wages were high, it was because a farm laborer 
is not a mechanic and a miner is not a farmer as well 
as because German, Austrian, Italian, or Polish work- 
men were not imported. The myth of a "labor sup- 
ply," capable of being drawn upon in bulk wherever 
there is a shortage, was as widely held in France as in 
other countries, but no inducement of wages could 
draw skilled workmen from Paris, Lyons, or Marseille 
for plowing and harvesting in the Somme or the Aisne, 
or transform the agriculturalists of the north into 
masons or carpenters. 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 199 

It is apparent that a considerable part of the popular 
criticism of reconstruction which finds expression in 
France takes the point of view of the small farmer 
whose buildings have not yet been restored and whose 
claims for damages have not yet been settled. The 
budget commission of 1921 presented detailed statistics 
showing the decreased crops, on land that had been 
restored, as compared with production in 1914. The 
situation of many small farmers in the devastated area 
is unquestionably distressing. One may still find many 
small villages — some of the most striking examples are 
regularly shown to tourists who patronize automobile 
excursions from Paris to London — which stand to-day 
in almost the same condition of ghastly ruin in which 
the war left them. Here again, however, there is 
another side. A careful inspection of the whole dev- 
tion is most apparent are, in the great majority of 
astated area shows that the villages in which desola- 
cases^ those which in 1914 had less than fifteen hun- 
dred inhabitants each, and that the neighboring farms 
are generally under cultivation even when the village 
is a waste. It is indeed a pity that these villages have 
not been rebuilt, but it would nevertheless have been a 
mistaken policy, since everything could not be done at 
once, to give them priority and let industry wait. 

Nor is the agricultural situation as bad as it has 
sometimes been painted. An examination of the fig- 
ures presented by the budget commission shows that 
with the exception of the Aisne, in which the crop 
production in 1920 was less than half that of 1914, the 
average diminution of production per hectare was less 
than twenty per cent, as compared with the period 



200 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

before the war. It would have been remarkable if, 
remembering the favorable conditions which many 
years of intensive cultivation had brought about, land 
which the war had torn to pieces should in two years, 
with as yet a scanty supply of stock for its enrichment, 
have resumed its former fertility. As a matter of fact, 
even the Aisne had a fair grain crop in 1920, the crops 
in general went beyond local needs in that year, and 
the grain harvest of 1921 was one of the best that 
France has ever known. The production of one of the 
most important crops, namely sugar beets, was the 
same per hectare in 1920 as before the war in the 
Marne, one quintal per hectare, or one-third of one 
per cent, less in the Pas-de-Calais, and sixteen per 
cent, less in the Oise. The falling off in the value of 
the sugar-beet crop in 1921 was primarily due to 
drought and the backwardness of the sugar-factory 
owners in rebuilding their works, rather than to the 
mistakes of reconstruction. The budget commission 
voiced the sound opinion that until the invaded de- 
partments had something to sell the cost of living, 
which means also the rates of wages, would not de- 
cline. It is clear that, although half a million of the 
former population has not yet returned, the condition 
which the commission desired is already being attained 
in agriculture. It would be superfluous to point out 
that the products of the factories and the mines, rap- 
idly approaching and in some cases already exceeding 
the volume of production before the war, create a rev- 
enue in whose benefits agriculture also shares. 

The most serious and regrettable failures of recon- 
struction are to be found, not in the smaller villages, 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 201 

but in the still unrelieved ruins of Albert, Arras, Lens, 
Bethune, Reims, Verdun, and many other large towns. 
For the desolation which still prevails in these centers 
the dilatory methods of the cantonal commissions, the 
necessity of relocating street and property lines before 
building permits can be issued, and the maze of for- 
malities elaborated in the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions appear to be primarily responsible.^ 

The budget commission urged strongly the abandon- 
ment by the state of its role of buyer, seller, and con- 
tractor and the adoption in the future of recognized 
commercial methods. The change is undoubtedly de- 
sirable now ; indeed, it is already rapidly taking place. 
The Central Purchasing Agency is winding up its 
affairs and disposing of its remaining stocks, and the 
accumulated supplies of the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions are being rapidly reduced or turned over to the 
cooperative reconstruction societies. The provision of 
law by which sinistres may now borrow on the security 
of future indemnities is further facilitating the change, 
the larger industrial establishments have to a consider- 
able extent adopted commercial methods from the 
beginning, and the railways have from the first been 

^ An interesting plan for hastening reconstruction was set forth at 
the end of December, 1921, by the prefect of the Somme. It was 
proposed to divide the department into eighteen sectors, formed by 
grouping communes, and to delegate to one of the cooperative 
societies of the sectors so much of the war damage claims for real 
property as the sinistres wished to re-employ in the restoration of 
their houses. When the claims held by any one society amounted 
approximately to 15,000,000 francs, the society was to make a con- 
tract with some large concern equipped to undertake the aggregate 
amount of rebuilding involved, and willing to enter into an agree- 
ment to complete the work in three or four years. The plan re- 
ceived the approval of the mayors of the communes and the organ- 
ization of the sectors has been begun. 



202 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

independent. Whether in the past, however, commer- 
cial methods would have helped the smaller sinistres 
or the farmers may be doubted. There is little reason 
to suppose that reliance upon the ordinary processes in 
buying and selling would have produced better hous- 
ing, or insured better provision of building materials, 
machinery, tools, seed, household furnishings, cattle, or 
medical supplies, or obtained priority of transport for 
the numberless commodities of which the invaded de- 
partments had need. They could in any case have 
worked successfully only where the sinistres had capi- 
tal or security, and it was precisely capital and security 
that most sinistres lacked. 

The question of coefficients is obviously one of great 
complexity. The cost of replacing property having a 
given value in 1914 varies not only with each particu- 
lar kind of property, but also with different depart- 
ments and from year to year. If work is slack and 
contracts are eagerly sought, prices are likely to fall; 
if building is active and labor fully employed, prices 
tend to rise. The determination of any coefficient, ac- 
cordingly, involves numerous hypothetical factors, 
especially when a given piece of work necessarily con- 
tinues over many months. On the other hand, the 
more elaborate the tables of coefficients applicable to 
different kinds of property, the greater the task of a 
cantonal commission in applying the tables to the 
damage claims presented, and the greater likelihood of 
disputes and consequent delays. If, in addition, the 
commission takes an arbitrary stand and applies a co- 
efficient appreciably lower than the sinistre had the 
right to expect or the advance payment of money rea- 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 203 

sonably implied, the unhappy situation so graphically 
sketched by M. d'Aubigny in his report inevitably 
arises. 

A good deal of adverse criticism was evoked by a 
circular of the Minister of the Liberated Regions, 
issued in the spring of 1921, advising the cantonal 
commissions and the technical experts associated with 
them that, in his opinion, no building ought thereafter 
to be reconstructed with a coeflScient greater than 3.25 
— the same figure which the budget commission had 
adopted as an average in estimating the total cost of 
reconstruction. It was at once objected that, while it 
might be possible in other departments to build in 
1921 at only three and one-fourth times the cost of 
building in 1914, the added cost of material, labor, and 
transport in the invaded departments, due in part to 
distance and the lack of labor and housing, made such 
a figure prohibitive. The desire of the ministry to 
keep down the cost of reconstruction by adopting as 
low a coeflBcient as possible is easily understood. It is 
also clear that, from the standpoint of administration, 
a coefficient which is the same for all departments is 
easier to apply than varying coefficients for different 
departments or different kinds of building. The force 
of the circular was weakened, however, by the fact 
that the ministry itself was not consistent. In May, 
1920, for example, the technical committee of the 
Marne had divided that department into three zones, 
with a different scale of coefficients for each zone. In 
March, 1921, the zones were abolished and the depart- 
ment was treated as a whole, but with coefficients 
varying from 3.50 francs to 5 francs on the basis of 



204 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

1914 values for different classes of work, together with 
supplements of from one to ten centimes for expenses 
of transport.^ A system which was desirable for the 
Marne could hardly be wholly undesirable for the 
other invaded departments. 

The proposal has been made, as a solution of the 
problem, that the cantonal commissions should agree 
upon the damages to be awarded for rebuilding during 
a period of twelve months^ using the coefficients ap- 
plicable at the time the award is made, and that the 
oversight of the work should be intrusted to the co- 
operative reconstruction societies which have now 
been organized in most of the cantons.- It is urged 
that the actual coefficients would probably not change 
much in twelve months, especially where work was 
done under contract. If for any reason the work pro- 
posed was not completed within the period named, the 
unfinished portion could be evaluated at the end of the 
year and other coefficients, if necessary, applied. The 
success of such a plan would depend mainly upon two 
things: prompt action by the commissions in evalu- 
ating damages, and prompt and regular payments by 
the state through the prefects. For the dilatory meth- 
ods of the cantonal commissions no effective remedy 
has been found. The prompt payment of indemnities, 
on the other hand, presents no difficulties once the 
claims of sinistres are fixed, since the annual credits 
voted by Parliament for the liberated regions are at 
least as great as can be properly spent, and the Credit 
National, through which payments are effected, has 

^Bulletin des Regions Liherees, March 19, 1921. 
*M. Andre Tardieu in L' Illustration, June 4, 1921. 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS 205 

from the first dealt with businesslike eflSciency with 
the claims that have reached it. 

The burden of criticism of the reconstruction pro- 
gram, in short, rests in the last analysis upon the 
cantonal commissions and the excessive formalities of 
official red tape. It is not easy to see, as has already 
been said, how a better system than that of the com- 
missions could have been devised. As for administra- 
tive formalities, they are not in general appreciably 
greater than those which characterize every branch of 
government service in France. It is perhaps reason- 
able to hope that, under the pressure of public opinion 
and the abolition of needless requirements by the Min- 
istry of the Liberated Regions, the work of the com- 
missions may be speeded sufficiently to aUow all the 
primary work of evaluating damages to be disposed of 
by the end of 1922. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 

For many years before the war cooperative societies 
for buying and selling had played an important part in 
the life of country districts and villages in all parts of 
France, and associations or syndicates of farmers had 
done something to improve agricultural methods and 
safeguard the interests of farmers in matters of legisla- 
tion. The political importance of the organizations 
was considerable, and did not noticeably diminish even 
though the agricultural population declined. Beyond 
this point, however, the idea of cooperation did not 
grow. It was not easy for the French farmer to co- 
operate. By nature an extreme individualist, jealous 
of his rights and privileges, and invincibly attached to 
the soil which he and his ancestors had cultivated for 
generations and which would pass to his descendants 
when he died, the farmer looked with pronounced sus- 
picion upon every proposal for dealing with the gov- 
ernment through third parties, and could not easily be 
induced to confide to any organization the protection 
of his property or his affairs. It was the same with the 
small merchants and artisans, and with the towns- 
people who drew their modest incomes from rents or 
investments. What they had was their own, and they 
preferred to administer it themselves. The cooperative 
spirit hardly existed. The successful establishment of 
cooperative societies for reconstruction was, accord- 
ingly, a triumph which one who does not know 

206 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 207 

the rural and provincial life of France cannot easily 
appreciate. 

The way was undoubtedly in part prepared by the 
growth of trade unions among the industrial workers 
and the corresponding development of syndicates of 
employers, and by the new sense of common effort, 
common sacrifice and suffering, and personal comrade- 
ship born of the war. Men and women who had 
worked together in a mighty effort to save the nation 
found it easier to work together to save themselves. 
The immediate occasion for the organization of a new 
cooperation, however, is to be found in the ignorance 
and misunderstandings of great numbers of sinistres in 
the presence of reconstruction, the complicated dossiers 
which the preparation of damage claims involved, an- 
noying controversies with architects, contractors, and 
government agents, difficulties in obtaining building 
material, supplies, and labor, and the frequent at- 
tempts of the government to beat down claims. Theo- 
retically, perhaps, the course marked out for the sin- 
istres in all these matters was clear and well-defined, 
but in practice the sinistre often found himself en-i 
meshed in troubles from which he could not by his own 
efforts hope to escape. It was to deal with this situa- 
tion that the cooperative reconstruction societies were 
formed. As is usual in such cases, a few leading sin- 
istres framed the proposals and directed the work of 
organization, but with remarkable unanimity the great 
majority of sinistres except the industrials acquiesced. 
The larger industrial sinistres, possessed of organiza- 
tions and resources of their own, have never been a 
part of the cooperative movement and were not in gen- 
eral in need of its assistance. 



208 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The full legal recognition of cooperative reconstruc- 
tion societies in their present form dates only from 
August 15, 1920, when the organization and powers of 
such societies were for the first time regulated by law. 
Very early in the war, however, the formation of 
groups of sinistres had been begun, and by 1919 an 
active campaign was in progress in a number of de- 
partments for the spread of the idea. Among the 
leaders of the movement special mention should be 
made of the Marquis de Lubersac, now senator from 
the Aisne, to whose energy and devotion the coopera- 
tive societies have from the beginning been deeply in- 
debted. A pamphlet prepared by M. Francis Delaisi ^ 
and issued under the joint auspices of the society 
known as La Renaissance des Cites and a bureau of the 
American Red Cross, expounded forcibly the need and 
value of cooperation for reconstruction purposes and 
outlined the way in which cooperative societies should 
be formed. Although the societies organized before 
1920 appear to have had no definite legal basis, and 
were consequently to be regarded as informal agents of 
the sinistres rather than as bodies with an independent 
place in the general scheme of reconstruction, they 
nevertheless were early given official recognition by 
the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, and typical 
forms of statutes were prepared which, if adopted by a 
society, received ministerial approval. The societies 
were allowed to receive on behalf of their members the 
advances granted by the government for the prepara- 
tion of dossiers, and also the first advance of twenty 
per cent, toward the cost of rebuilding. A circular of 

* La Cooperative de Construction. 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 209 

December 22, 1919/ required them to choose archi- 
tects, if any were employed, from lists which had re- 
ceived ministerial approval. 

It should be pointed out that none of the societies 
possessed any capital and none were organized for 
profit. Their small necessary expenses were met from 
membership contributions of sinistres, and member- 
ship was entirely voluntary. There were neither re- 
bates nor commissions. If by good fortune or good 
management a piece of work which a society undertook 
to perform for a sinistre was executed for less than the 
amount of the indemnity allowed, the balance did not 
accrue to the society, but remained available for the 
sinistre if he could show that the whole indemnity was 
ultimately to be reemployed. The societies, in short, 
were merely extra-legal organizations to which their 
members delegated certain powers as agents, and which 
the government recognized because they were obvi- 
ously useful. 

In order, apparently, to eliminate from other unions 
or associations of sinistres the possibility of profit, and 
to assimilate all such organizations to the cooperative 
type, a ministerial circular of May 25, 1920, directed 
that the members of such associations should be al- 
lowed the benefits of the existing system of advances 
only in case they were composed entirely of sinistres, 
submitted their statutes for ministerial approval, had 
their offices in the devastated regions, limited their 
work to the preparation of dossiers of damages for 
their members, prohibited profits, and agreed to accept 

* Further elaborated on December 24. The Minister of the Lib- 
erated Regions at this time was M. Andre Tardieu. 



210 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

administrative control and financial supervision. Cap- 
ital already invested, however, was to be entitled to a 
fair remuneration. 

All of these preliminary arrangements were revised 
and the matter given permanent form by the law of 
August 15, 1920.^ The law, elaborated from a primi- 
tive proposal of M. Ogier, then Minister of the Lib- 
erated Regions, authorized the formation of coopera- 
tive societies of sinistres for the purpose of taking part, 
for the benefit of their members, in all the operations 
involved in the reconstruction of buildings or other 
real property, including the preparation of dossiers, 
the evaluation of damages, the execution, supervision, 
and payment of reconstruction work, and the reem- 
ployment of advances. The societies, which were given 
the status of civil persons for legal purposes, were to 
continue in existence as long as the work for which 
they were formed remained to be done, and were not to 
be dissolved before that time save for grave cause and 
by the decision of a majority of the members. Control 
of the affairs of a society was vested in a general as- 
sembly, comprising at least two-thirds of the members 
and representing also at least one-half of the total 
amount of the indemnities in which the society was 
interested. Administrative control, on the other hand, 
was in the hands of a council, from which any member 
who had entered into any contract with the society 
was excluded. The funds of the society were limited 
to contributions toward expenses made by members, 
payments made by the state for the benefit of sin- 
istres, and gifts or legacies. An account with the 
society was to be opened with the agencies through 

*See Appendix C. 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 211 

which state payments were made (i.e., the Credit Na- 
tional), and the society itself was to open an account 
with each of its members. The members might not 
withdraw so long as any indemnities received for 
them by the society were still unemployed or while 
work which had been undertaken for them was in 
progress. 

Each society was privileged to determine for itself 
the order in which reconstruction work should be 
undertaken. For the purpose of defraying general 
expenses a grant was to be made by the state, varying 
from one per cent, on work not exceeding 500,000 
francs in value to fifteen one-hundredths of one per 
cent, when the value of the work exceeded 200,000,000 
francs; in other words, the larger the contract the 
smaller the percentage of contribution by the state. 
Special grants for the establishment of revolving funds 
were also provided for, and contracts for the clearing of 
debris might be made with a society by the state. De- 
partments, communes, and public institutions as well 
as individuals might become members, and unions of 
societies might be formed for buying, selling, centraliz- 
ing accounts, or other appropriate purposes. The law 
was made applicable to the new departments of the 
Moselle, Haut-Rhin, and Bas-Rhin as well as to those 
of the liberated regions. 

These were the general provisions. In order to 
benefit by the financial provisions of the law, however, 
a cooperative society must be officially approved. Such 
approval was to be granted on four conditions. The 
statutes of the society must conform in all essential 
respects to typical statutes drawn up by the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions; the selection of architects 



212 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

and contractors must be made from a list approved 
for each department, the societies themselves, how- 
ever, having a voice in the approval of names; there 
was to be state supervision of accounts; and not more 
than one society was to be formed in a commune 
unless the losses of its members, calculated on the 
basis of values in 1914, amounted to at least one mil- 
lion francs. Any of the existing societies formed for 
reconstruction purposes, whether of the cooperative 
type or not, might obtain ministerial approval by con- 
forming to these conditions. 

It will be observed that the law of August 15 did not 
legislate other associations than the cooperative soci- 
eties out of existence. It merely denied to them the 
privilege of acting for the sinistres in any financial 
matters connected with the payment of indemnities or 
their reemployment. Moreover, membership in a co- 
operative reconstruction society was not made compul- 
sory: the war damages law of April 17, 1919, was still 
the fundamental law for every sinistre, and the only 
claim of the cooperative society to support was its 
ability to do for the sinistre what he could not easily 
do for himself. By requiring a cooperative society to 
open an account with each of its members the law 
emphasized the fact that the society acted under a 
mandate given by the sinistre, with the sole object of 
aiding him to safeguard his rights and carry out his 
wishes in the matter of rebuilding. On the other 
hand, the sinistre who joined a cooperative society 
became thereby a member of a body whose sole func- 
tion it was to push the claims of its members as a 
whole, to deal with contracts collectively in accordance 
with a carefuly prepared program, and to represent 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 213 

the sinistre in the complicated transactions which the 
administrative system involved. 

The issuance in October of decrees interpreting and 
applying the provisions of the law and prescribing the 
general form of statutes to be adopted by the indi- 
vidual societies was followed by other ministerial cir- 
culars regulating the system of accounts, the procedure 
for the approval of the societies which wished to take 
advantage of the law, and the application of the law 
to the new departments of the Moselle, Haut-Rhin, 
and Bas-Rhin. The method of compiling lists of ap- 
proved architects and contractors was made the sub- 
ject of an elaborate circular on January 11, 1921. The 
first published list, comprising forty-three names of 
architects, was that of the Nord department. 

In applying the financial provisions of the law of 
August 15 the state undertook to advance to each ap- 
proved society with at least seven members 50 francs 
per member, the total amount, however, to be not less 
than 500 francs nor more than 3,000 francs. The 
revolving funds were to be paid only after the approval 
by the prefect of the program of work submitted by 
the society, and were not to exceed 25 per cent, of the 
total credit allowed for the work proposed. As this 
advance represented the sum of the advances to which 
the individual members of the society were entitled, 
all individual advances to members were of course dis- 
continued. Payments were not made in cash, but 
credits for the amounts advanced were opened with a 
designated branch of the Credit National, the society 
drawing upon this credit by means of checks. The 
installments of the revolving funds were regarded as 
having been repaid when the society presented proper 



214 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

evidence that the work in question had been com- 
pleted, but the grant of further credit would serve to 
recreate the fund. Contracts between the societies 
and approved architects and contractors were regarded 
as private matters in which the state was not con- 
cerned, although model forms of contract were drawn 
up by the Ministry of the Liberated Regions for the 
benefit of such societies as chose to use them. 

The reorganization of the societies under the new law 
went on rapidly. In the department of the Marne, for 
example, 214 of the 268 communes which had suffered 
during the war were in a position, by virtue of the 
importance of the losses which they had sustained, to 
form cooperative reconstruction societies. Before the 
adoption of the law of August 15, 1920, there were in 
existence in that department 147 societies representing 
210 communes. By the middle of June, 1921, 132 
societies representing 207 communes had been reor- 
ganized, and of that number 128, representing 204 
communes, had been approved. The members of these 
approved societies numbered 9,456, while the aggre- 
gate amount of the losses sustained, on the basis of 
values in 1914 and not counting the increased cost of 
replacement, was 338,458,000 francs. All of the ap- 
proved societies had adopted plans of rebuilding for 
1921, the aggregate amount involved being about 250,- 
000,000 francs. The system of advances for revolving 
funds had been established for the department on 
April 1, and since that date 25,115,080 francs had been 
paid to the societies.^ 

The weekly Bulletin of the Liberated Regions for 
1921 contains frequent lists of societies which had 

^Bulletin des Regions Liberees, June 15, 1921. 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 215 

been given ministerial approval. On May 7, for ex- 
ample, 23 societies in the Ardennes were accepted; on 
May 15, 63 societies in the Meuse; on May 26, 98 soci- 
eties in the Aisne; on May 28, 18 additional societies 
in the Ardennes; on June 11, 9 societies in the Pas-de- 
Calais; on June 27, 10 societies in the Somme. In the 
department of the Aisne there were, on September 20, 
245 approved societies, representing war damages to 
the amount (value in 1914) of 622,000,000 francs. 

The law of August 15 authorized the societies to 
group themselves in unions, and numerous such unions, 
with the arrondissement as the basis, were presently 
formed. In the Mame two unions had been formed by 
June, 1921, one of 35 rural societies in the arrondisse- 
ment of Reims, the other of 18 societies in the valley 
of the Marne. The Laon union, in the Aisne, com- 
prised in October 85 societies, representing actual losses 
of 232,000,000 francs and a reconstruction cost of more 
than four times that amount; the Soissons union, 64 
societies with 240,000,000 francs of damages; the St. 
Quentin union, 15 societies with 240,000,000 francs of 
damages; the Vervins union, 54 societies and 75,000,000 
francs of damages; and the union of Chateau-Thierry, 
31 societies with damages of 48,000,000 francs. 

In July, 1921, the legal status of the unions was 
regulated on lines similar to those laid down for 
the individual societies, and state subventions were 
granted^ at the rate of 2,000 francs per annum for 
each member society up to ten, 1,000 francs for each 
such member society from 11 to 30, 800 francs each for 
from 31 to 40, 600 francs each for from 41 to 50, 500 
francs for from 51 to 100, and 300 francs for each 

* Decree of August 29, applying the law of July 12. 



216 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

member society over one hundred. The unions were 
also allowed to contract loans on the same basis as indi- 
vidual sinistres in accordance with the budget law of 
July 31, 1920, already referred to.^ 

The next step in organization was the grouping of 
unions in departmental federations. With the forma- 
tion later of a confederation representing the federa- 
tions of all the invaded departments, the organization 
of the sinistres was made complete. 

A striking example of what a cooperative recon- 
struction society was able to accomplish is afforded by 
the city of Reims. Of approximately 13^800 buildings 
of all Jiinds in Reims in July, 1914, 13,500 were dwell- 
ings. 8,600 buildings of various kinds were totally 
destroyed, and all of the remainder were more or less 
injured. The total of war damages, distributed among 
7,000 property holders, was estimated at 300,000,000 
francs on the basis of values in 1914, equivalent to 
about 1,200,000,000 francs in cost of replacement. 
Down to the beginning of September, 1921, 3,000 
buildings had been entirely restored, 2,850 of this num- 
ber being dwellings. The number of buildings to whose 
restoration, complete or in progress, the cooperative 
society had at that date given its aid was 4,500, and 
for these it had received advances from the state to 
the aggregate of 120,000,000 francs. These figures do 
not include industrial reconstruction for the reason, as 
has already been stated, that industrial reconstruction 
is not within the field of the cooperative societies. 
The membership of the Reims society, which in Octo- 
ber, 1919, numbered only thirty, is now more than 
2,300, the society being the largest in the invaded 

*Page 199. 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 217 

departments.^ At the annual meeting of the Reims 
society in December the president, the Marquis de 
Polignac, stated that the amount allotted to Reims for 
reconstruction purposes in 1922 would aggregate 200,- 
000,000 francs, and that if advances at this rate con- 
tinued and architects and contractors did their part, 
the complete restoration of the city might be antici- 
pated in six or seven years. 

One of the important services which the cooperative 
societies rendered to the cause of reconstruction was 
that of criticism of the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions. Had that ministry functioned as well in fact 
as its voluminous output of circulars and instructions 
might lead one to suppose, the cooperative effort of 
sinistres might not have been necessary; but its short- 
comings, if not always avoidable, were nevertheless 
numerous and irritating, and official pronouncements 
did not always remedy the difficulties with which they 
dealt. The unions and departmental federations of co- 
operatives attacked the problem persistently. They 
pointed out the dilatory and unsystematic methods of 
the cantonal commissions. They questioned the acts 
of technical experts and administrative agents and the 
rulings of prefects, resisted the arbitrary imposition of 
coefficients, and claimed from the state the fuU and 
fair performance of all that the state undertook to do. 
They insisted upon competency and honesty in archi- 
tects and contractors, and exposed unfair practices and 
excessive charges wherever such appeared.^ It is to 

*I am indebted to M. Georges Marret, general secretary of the 
Reims society, for these figures. 

'In September, 1921, the departmental federation of the Aisne 
protested against "the scandalous exaggeration of the scale of pay- 
ments to experts designated by the cantonal commission," and 



218 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the credit of the present minister, M. Loucheur, that in 
spite of all the attacks to which the ministry was sub- 
jected, he has cooperated cordially with the societies, 
and has rarely failed to take their point of view once a 
case has been fully presented and discussed. 

What has just been said can best be illustrated by a 
few examples taken from the proceedings of local soci- 
eties, unions, and federations. 

The following vote is taken from the records of the 
cooperative reconstruction society of Chassemy, a 
small viUage in the Aisne: 

''The members of the Chassemy cooperative, assembled in 
general session on October 14, 1921, as required by law, 
being desirous of insuring the methodical continuation of 
the work now in hand and also of aiding, to the extent of 
its abihty, in its prompt completion, earnestly requests 

M. , their architect, whose demonstrated competency 

they recognize, to give a large part of his attention to the 
organization of the work as a whole and the coordination 
of the different parts of the undertaking, and this from the 
point of view of the cooperative no less than from that of 
the general contractor; and they accordingly ask him, being 
convinced that the amount of his remuneration is such as 
to admit of the sacrifice, to organize definitively and as 
soon as possible in the village, as he has from the beginning 
intended to do, an oflEice where the members of the society 
may find him or his representative on fixed days. They 
attach the greatest importance to this request and beg the 
honor of a reply." 

The general assembly of the cooperative of Coucy- 
le-Chateau, at a meeting on May 29, 1921, expressed 
its opinion as follows regarding the cantonal com- 
mission : 

demanded better guaranty regarding the method of choosing such 
experts. 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 219 

"In view of the fact that the dossiers of war damages 
have all been filed; 

"In view of the fact that the cantonal commission has 
not yet examined any dossier of real property, and that it 
is indispensable that the sinistres be apprised as soon as 
possible of the amount of their losses and indemnities; 

"We express the opinion that the cantonal commission of 
Coucy-le-Chateau ought to comprise an active, stable, and 
competent personnel, to the end that it may decide without 
delay upon the actual loss sustained, leaving if necessary to 
a later date the evaluation of supplementary costs [of re- 
building] ." 

The official organ of the Aisne federation published 
the foregoing resolution with this comment: 

"We are heartily in accord with the desires of the sorely- 
tried population of Coucy-le-Chateau, and we hope that 
satisfaction will promptly be given. We nevertheless make 
some reservations regarding the last clause, deeming the 
main thing to be the full application of the law of April 17, 
1919. The commissions must decide upon both the actual 
loss and the supplementary costs, first because that is the 
law and in that law alone is to be found our sole plank of 
safety; second, because the cantonal commissions have al- 
ready spent too much time in considering the dossiers, and if 
they have to sit twice for the same object they will never 
get through." 

The following vote was adopted by the Bethune 
union on August 22, 1921 : 

"The Federation of Cooperative Reconstruction societies 
of the Bethune arrondissement regrets that the prefecture 
of the Pas-de-Calais has not yet put in force the new scale 
[of prices] for reconstruction promised a long time ago, and 
urgently requests that this new scale be put into effect 
without delay and communicated to the cooperatives, and 
that, following the example of neighboring departments, it 
may be kept up to date by monthly publication." 

These illustrations, which could easily be multiplied 
many times^ will suffice for the critical side. In the 



220 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

main, however, the cooperative societies have devoted 
themselves to helping on in every way possible the 
work of reconstruction. Their activities in that direc- 
tion have been as multifarious as the task itself has 
been large. They have aided in the preparation of the 
dossiers of war damages for their members; elaborated 
systems of accounting; made contracts for clearing 
debris (deblaiement) , the initiative in such work being 
devolved by the ministry exclusively upon the societies 
or upon individual sinistres; undertaken by contract 
the repair or erection of buildings ; ^ received and ex- 
pended the funds provided by the state for the payment 
of damages; dealt with the questions of reemployment 
of indemnities, coefficients, supplies of material, pro- 
vision of labor and transport, the employment of archi- 
tects, and the superintendence of construction; ar- 
ranged for the utilization of stocks of material and mer- 
chandise remaining in the hands of the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions; investigated local prices of labor 
and charges for hotel accommodations and the use of 
horses, wagons, and trucks; and studied the applica- 
tion of sanitary laws in the devastated departments. 
The general assemblies of the societies, held at regular 
intervals, have been open forums for the discussion of 
all questions in which the members were interested, 
and pains have been taken to explain the requirements 
of laws, decrees, and ministerial circulars and to insure 
conformity to their provisions. It is not too much to 
say that wherever to-day, throughout the liberated 

*0n December 5, 1921, the president of the confederation of 
cooperative societies was able to advise the affiliated groups that the 
full amount of the credits required to pay for the work performed 
in 1921 was in the hands of the prefects, and that the credits neces- 
sary for the payment in 1922 of work equal in amount to that of 
1921 were also available. 



WORK OF THE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES 221 

regions, the progress in the reconstruction of non-in- 
dustrial property is most rapid, an energetic and well- 
administered cooperative society will be found to be 
chiefly responsible. 

Not all of the sinistres are members of cooperative 
societies, and not all of the societies are members of 
the arrondissement unions. A small percentage of 
sinistres have preferred to act independently, and a few 
societies still remain outside of the unions because 
their statutes have not yet been approved. Generally 
speaking, however, all of the larger associations and 
most of the smaller ones have joined the movement. 
Membership in the unions has been made particularly 
desirable by the recent action of the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions in putting isolated societies on the 
same footing as isolated sinistres, as well as by the 
further fact that none of the financial benefits accorded 
by the law of 1920 can be enjoyed by societies which 
are not approved. A ministerial circular of December 
15, 1921, directed the prefects to insure the examina- 
tion by the proper administrative agents, during the 
first three months of 1922, of the dossiers of all mem- 
bers of cooperative societies for whom the societies had 
planned to do work during that year. 

The contrast between the reconstruction work done 
under the direction of cooperative societies and that 
done under the ordinary routine of the state is 
a further tangible argument which has not passed 
unnoticed. One has only to compare such a vil- 
lage as Chassemy, almost completely destroyed by 
the war, but to-day, thanks to a cooperative society 
capably administered, about two-thirds rebuilt in solid 
and attractive style, with the neighboring village of 



222 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Sarcy where, with no cooperative but with full liberty 
for the individual employment of architects and con- 
tractors, there has been but little rebuilding and much 
of that little poorly done, to realize the practical value 
of cooperation. 

The laws of August, 1920, and July, 1921, establish- 
ing the legal bases of the cooperative reconstruction 
societies and unions, recognized the essentially tem- 
porary character of the organizations by providing that 
the period of their existence should be determined by 
the completion of the work which they were formed 
to do. A considerable number of the organizations 
have fixed the period of their duration at five years. 
In September, 1921, M. Loucheur, Minister of the 
Liberated Regions, expressed to the interparliamentary 
group of senators and deputies from the invaded de- 
partments the hope that the work of the cantonal 
commissions in the evaluation of damages would be 
completed by September, 1922. If this hope is 
realized, it is perhaps reasonable to expect that the 
restoration of private buildings, other than industrial 
establishments, will have been mainly completed 
within three or four years after that date.^ By 1925 
or 1926, accordingly, most of the cooperative societies 
will probably have closed up their affairs. There is no 
reason why they should continue after their work is 
done, but the record of their cooperative service will 
continue to be read in the homes and shops which they 
will have helped to rebuild and in the community life 
which they will have helped to restore. 

*In November, in an address to a delegation of mayors from the 
devastated communes, M. Loucheur stated that six years was the 
shortest period within which the completion of reconstruction could 
be hoped for (Paris Matin, November 18). 



CHAPTER XIII 

MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 

Long before the war most of the public and many of 
the private buildings in France which possessed special 
historical or artistic value and interest had been classed 
as monuments and taken under the special supervision 
of the state. The list included most of the older 
churches and cathedrals, town halls (hotels de ville), 
numerous chateaux and palaces, and many houses or 
other structures illustrative of architectural develop- 
ment or associated with notable historical events or the 
lives of famous men and women. In some cases the 
entire cost of repairs and maintenance was assumed by 
the state; where monuments were privately owned the 
state exercised control over all repairs and architectural 
changes. The direction of this service devolved upon 
the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts. 

The so-called separation law of December 9, 1905, 
which terminated the connection hitherto existing 
between church and state in France, left in the hands 
of the church all the buildings used for religious pur- 
poses to which the church had title, and devolved upon 
the church the maintenance of the properties subject, 
however, to continued state approval in the case of 
monuments. If the buildings were injured or de- 
stroyed, any indemnities received in compensation for 
losses — for example, the proceeds of fire insurance — 

223 



224 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

were required to be used for the reconstruction of a 
similar building of the same value as before and des- 
tined for the same purpose. 

The war worked sad havoc with the monuments of 
the invaded departments. An official list, not com- 
plete, shows about six hundred churches, cathedrals, 
town halls, and other buildings destroyed or damaged. 
The work of destruction reached its maximum in the 
Aisne, where 180 monuments were injured or ruined. 
The list includes the birthplace of La Fontaine at 
Chateau-Thierry, the thirteenth century chateau at 
Fere-en-Tardenois remodeled in the sixteenth century 
by Anne de Montmorency, constable of France; the 
famous donjon at Coucy-le-Chateau, the best example 
of medieval civil architecture in France ; the cathedral, 
bishop's house, and Knights Templars' chapel at Laon, 
the town haU at St. Quentin, the picturesque remains 
of the twelfth century Cistercian abbey at Longpont, 
and the cathedral of Notre Dame and the abbey of 
St. Leger at Soissons. 

In the Marne, where 123 monuments suffered, the 
greatest injury was done at Reims. The Reims list 
includes, besides the cathedral of Notre Dame, the 
palace and chapel of the archbishop, dating from the 
fifteenth century; the beautiful fagade of the town 
hall; the Musicians' House of the thirteenth century; 
a group of medieval wooden houses, and the birthplace 
of Jean Baptiste de la Salle, founder of the teaching 
order of Christian Brothers. The cathedral of St. Eti- 
enne at Chalons-sur-Marne, begun in the thirteenth 
century, also suffered. 

In the Oise the monuments injured or destroyed 



MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 225 

numbered 71, among them being the beautiful Gothic 
cathedral of St. Peter at Beauvais, begun in 1227, and 
the Roman-Gothic church of St. Etienne, dating from 
the twelfth century; the fourteenth century church at 
Clermont; the palace or chateau at Compiegne, long a 
favorite residence of the kings of France, together with 
the town hall; the twelfth century cathedral of Notre 
Dame at Noyon, one of the most beautiful of the 
French cathedrals, and the town hall ; and the splendid 
cathedral of Notre Dame at Senlis. 

In the other invaded departments the destruction of 
monuments was numerically less extensive: 32 in the 
Pas-de-Calais, 36 in the Nord, 35 in the Somme, 38 in 
the Meuse, 37 in the Ardennes, 36 in Meurthe-et- 
Mcselle, and 6 in the Vosges. The list includes, how- 
ever, the great cathedral and the belfry and fagade of 
the town hall at Arras; the cathedral at Cambrai, the 
belfry and town hall at Douai, the church of St. Mau- 
rice at Lille, the cathedral at Amiens, the ancient 
chateau at Ham, the medieval chateau at Peronne, the 
town hall at Longwy, the cathedral and ducal palace 
at Nancy, the cathedral at Toul, the Gothic church of 
St. Etienne at St. Mihiel, the cathedral, cloister, 
bishop's palace, and town hall at Verdun, and the 
cathedral at St. Die. 

The total value of the properties destroyed is esti- 
mated at about 900,000,000 francs, to which is to be 
added a considerable sum,^ as yet undetermined, repre- 
senting the value of art objects, furnishings, and per- 
sonal property stolen, carried away, or destroyed. 

No money indemnity could ever make good the loss 
of historical association and artistic value which the 



226 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

destruction of monuments involved. A ruined church 
or town hall might be rebuilt on the same site and even 
in the same form, but it would be a new building, not 
the old one. In scores of instances even this measure 
of restoration was impossible, for the buildings were 
beyond repair. The most that could be done was to 
restore what was susceptible of restoration, leaving the 
rest to stand in the ruin which the war brought upon 
them or to be replaced in time by other structures of 
perhaps a different type. 

From the beginning of the war the Ministry of 
Public Instruction and Fine Arts exerted itself to pro- 
tect monuments which had been injured from further 
deterioration and to prevent as far as possible further 
loss. Buildings which had been damaged or wrecked 
were inspected, temporary repairs made, and access to 
buildings which were in a dangerous condition closed 
by fences or barricades. Statues and parts of the 
interior were protected by thick piles of sandbags, and 
great quantities of precious tapestry, paintings, plate, 
books, manuscripts, and records were sent for safety 
to the center and south of France. The larger part of 
the best stained glass in the cathedrals at Amiens and 
Beauvais was also saved. Many fine pipe organs, how- 
ever, were almost a total loss, the metal pipes being 
in a number of cases appropriated by the Germans 
even when the woodwork was spared. 

The war damages law of April 17, 1919, provided 
that, in the case of all buildings used for civil or 
religious purposes, the indemnity to be paid should 
be limited to the amount necessary for the reconstruc- 
tion of a building of the same character and impor- 



MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 227 

tance, designed for the same uses, and embodying the 
same guaranties of permanence, as the building de- 
stroyed. If for any reason the building could not be 
restored, the indemnity was to be limited to the amount 
necessary for the acquisition of a new site. The 
evaluation of damages was left, as in other cases, to 
the cantonal commissions and the tribunals of the 
arrondissements. In the case of monuments, however, 
the carrying out of the conditions of restoration was 
intrusted to a special commission under the direction 
of the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, 
and the credits necessary for reconstruction were car- 
ried by the budget of that ministry. 

It will be seen from what has just been said that the 
law of war damages recognized two classes of buildings 
used for public or religious purposes, namely, those 
which are classed as monuments and those which are 
not. In the first of these cases the entire control of 
restoration, including the decision as to whether or not 
restoration is possible, rests with the special com- 
mission which the law creates. In the second case the 
control of reconstruction, whether the buildings belong 
to associations or religious bodies or to communes or 
departments, rests with the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions. In practice, as we shall see, the two ad- 
ministrations have sometimes found it necessary to 
cooperate, but for the most part their fields have 
remained entirely distinct. On" the other hand, while 
many of the complicated questions involved in the 
reemployment of indemnities for industrial or agri- 
cultural purposes are not likely to arise in the case of 
public buildings and churches, the implied permission 



228 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

to acquire a new site in case a building cannot be 
restored involves the right of a commune or depart- 
ment to expropriate private property in case a suitable 
site cannot be obtained by private arrangement. The 
Council of State has ofl&cially decided that such a right 
exists. 

The special commission provided for by the law was 
a strong body. Its original membership comprised two 
senators and three deputies elected by the respective 
chambers; two members of the French Academy, two 
members of the Academy of Fine Arts, a member of the 
general council for civil buildings, and two members of 
the Historical Monuments Commission ; one represen- 
tative each of the ministries of Public Instruction and 
Fine Arts, Finance, Interior, Labor, and the Liberated 
Regions; one representative of each religious body in- 
terested in the restoration of buildings, designated by 
the Minister of the Interior; and six artists designated 
by the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts. 
As at present constituted the commission consists of 
fifty-eight members, the Minister of Public Instruction 
and Fine Arts acting as president. 

Unlike the Ministry of the Liberated Regions, the 
Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, through 
which the special commission speaks and acts, does not 
issue frequent circulars of instructions to its agents or 
reports of work accomplished. The decisions of the 
commission are communicated to the persons whose 
business it is to put them into effect, and the rest is — 
silence. There is, accordingly, no body of accessible 
records to which one may go to discover what has been 
the policy of the commission or what results have been 



MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 229 

achieved. The policy of silence has doubtless served 
very well to conceal whatever differences of opinion 
have arisen regarding procedure and to ward off the 
controversies which always follow publicity. On the 
other hand, the peculiar nature of the task which the 
commission has had to perform has made it easier to 
dispense with the elaborate formalities of procedure 
which the restoration of industry, commerce, and agri- 
culture has entailed. There has been no question, in 
the case of monuments, of restoring buildings in some 
new form or of different material: the monuments 
were to be rebuilt in their original form in all essential 
respects at least, or they could hardly be restored at all. 
When, accordingly, the commission had decided as to 
whether or not restoration was possible and had re- 
ceived from the cantonal commissions the decisions 
regarding damages, the rest of its task was compara- 
tively easy. Drawings or photographs and often 
detailed descriptions of the monuments were available, 
and the plan of work rather than its ultimate aim was 
the main thing to consider. 

The chief difficulty encountered had to do with the 
treatment of monuments which could not be restored, 
either because they had been completely destroyed or 
because they had been injured beyond possibility of 
repair. The only legal provision applicable to such 
cases was that which limited the indemnity to the 
amount necessary for the acquisition of a new site. If 
the building in question was not the property of the 
state, it would appear to have been the intent of the 
law to assure to the owners a suitable site on which 
to rebuild, and to allow condemnation proceedings to 



230 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

take place if necessary to secure a suitable location; 
but the state did not undertake either to pay for the 
building which had been destroyed or to contribute to 
the cost of erecting a new one. If the owners decided 
not to rebuild on another site, they were apparently 
not entitled to receive any indemnity at all, since under 
the separation laws of 1905 and 1907 the proceeds of 
any Indemnities received on account of losses must, as 
has already been said, be applied to the restoration of 
the property in question and could not be used for 
other purposes. On the other hand, if the owners 
decided to rebuild, all of the expense except that of 
the new site must apparently be borne by them without 
state aid. 

Of the approximately six hundred monuments in- 
jured or destroyed far the larger number were churches, 
and many of these were injured beyond repair. It will 
be seen at once that every decision by the commission 
that a church was not to be repaired meant a positive 
and permanent loss to the religious body to which the 
church belonged. It had no claim to damages for 
either land or buildings unless it rebuilt, and if it re- 
built on another site it must itself bear the whole cost 
except that of the land. In other words, monuments 
which were not the property of the state ceased to exist 
as monuments if they could not be replaced. 

It is not clear that the law intended to preserve for 
the state any interest in new structures which might 
be erected on new sites beyond that of insuring a suit- 
able location. The supervisory authority of the state 
apparently continues, however, in the case of monu- 
ments which, like town halls, belong to communes or 
departments. If they can be restored, the restoration 



MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 231 

is supervised by the commission and the expense is met 
by the state. If restoration is impossible and the old 
site is abandoned, the plans of new buildings will ap- 
parently require the approval of the Ministry of Public 
Instruction and Fine Arts as in the case of other public 
buildings in France. It is perhaps unlikely that many 
old sites will be abandoned, except in the few cases in 
which a small village is transferred bodily to a new 
location; but unless the state comes to the aid of the 
commune or department, those communities must 
apparently themselves bear the cost of rebuilding on 
the new site. 

It was well that control by the commission and the 
ministry should continue. During the war consider- 
able apprehension was expressed in some quarters lest, 
when the time for rebuilding the devastated towns 
arrived, advantage might be taken of the situation to 
introduce styles of architecture, both public and 
private, which if not fantastic would at least be out of 
keeping with what had previously obtained in the 
region. Some proposed structures of which models or 
drawings were exhibited at Paris evoked a good deal 
of well-founded criticism. The better way was pointed 
out by the French Regional Association in the following 
resolutions adopted in June, 1915: 

1. That all reconstruction in the invaded regions should 
be inspired by the spirit of the region and regard for natural 
harmonies. 

2. That the state, the communes, parish councils, presby- 
teries, large companies, etc., should set the example and give 
to public buildings or to those intended for general use, 
where such buildings occupy a prominent place in the com- 
munity, characteristic features. 

3. That the barraques needed at once to replace homes 



232 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

that have been destroyed should be of a strictly provisional 
character, and that no permanent construction whatever 
ought to be undertaken until general plans have been 
adopted, and then under public control. 

The railway companies and numerous industrial or- 
ganizations have set an example of tasteful and appro- 
priate architecture in many of the buildings which they 
have erected, and there is no reason to fear that the 
special commission or the Ministry of Public Instruc- 
tion and Fine Arts will adopt standards less exacting. 

The law of war damages gave the state the privilege 
of discharging its obligation to a sinistre by itself re- 
placing buildings that had been destroyed. By agree- 
ment between the ministries of the Liberated Regions 
and Public Instruction and Fine Arts this provision of 
the law was to be applied in the case of monuments, 
whether the monuments belonged to communes, to 
departments, or to private parties, wherever the 
sinistres were willing to relinquish their claims to in- 
demnity in view of the restoration to be undertaken 
by the state. ^ In some cases the remains of monu- 
ments or other buildings of artistic or historical value 
were destroyed or left without suflficient protection in 
the course of clearing away debris. To prevent further 
action of that kind the prefects were instructed by the 
Minister of the Liberated Regions to draw up plans for 
clearing, and to insure cooperation between the archi- 
tects employed by the department and the agents of 
the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts 
having charge of the monuments.^ The intimation 

* Circular of the Minister of the Liberated Regions (M. Ogier), 
March 23, 1920. 

^Circular of the Minister of the Liberated Regions (M. Loucheur), 
March 23, 1921. 



MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 233 

was given that careless contractors would hereafter be 
severely dealt with. 

The various budget laws of 1920 carried credits for 
the preservation or restoration of monuments in the 
invaded departments to the amount of 14,275,208 
francs. Similar credits in 1921 aggregated 35,070,832 
francs. The total of credits for the two years was 
49,346,040 francs. Previous credits raise the total 
expenditure to about 60,000,000 francs. On the other 
hand, the budgets of the two years 1920-1921 appro- 
priated no less than 45,056,558 francs for personnel and 
the payment of indemnities to functionaries of the 
Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts living in 
the invaded departments. It has been from the begin- 
ning the policy of the government to indemnify its 
agents for extra expenses or added cost of living in the 
liberated regions, but no such striking contrast between 
the amounts voted for indemnities and personnel and 
tho amounts voted for reconstruction is to be found in 
any other ministry. 

The disparity between the two sides of the account 
would perhaps invite less attention if the record of 
achievement in restoration or reconstruction were more 
substantial. Unfortunately the record is neither sub- 
stantial nor encouraging. The situation in the lib- 
erated regions, so far as the condition of cathedrals, 
churches, town halls, and public buildings generally 
is concerned, is melancholy in the extreme. Scarcely 
any building which was seriously injured has under- 
gone any considerable amount of restoration and 
far the larger number have apparently received no 
attention whatever save that involved in barricading 
entrances and supporting walls or roofs in danger of 



234 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

falling. Hundreds of monuments and similar buildings 
are to-day in practically the same state in which the 
war left them : roofs gaping with shell holes or hanging 
in shattered sections, walls breached, wrecked interiors 
piled with debris, and weeds and grass overgrowing the 
heaps of stone, brick, and plaster untouched as yet by 
pick or shovel. Here and there, in some of the larger 
structures, parts which escaped destruction have been 
temporarily repaired and the use of the building has 
been resumed; at Verdun, for example, a portion of one 
of the aisles of the cathedral has been partitioned off 
from the main body of the church, and there services 
are held. Only where the damage was comparatively 
slight, however, has anything properly to be called 
restoration been carried far toward completion. 

An American architect, writing in 1919 of certain 
temporary repairs already made or in contemplation 
on the Reims cathedral, recorded the "expectation" 
that in two years services would again be held in this 
most famous building of the war. Down to December, 
1921, nothing had been done to the Reims cathedral to 
indicate that either the main body of the church or any 
considerable portion of it would be fit for use for 
several years to come. What is true of the Reims 
cathedral is true also, in all essential respects, of all 
the other cathedrals which were seriously injured, of 
the town halls, and of the churches. Nor is any large 
amount of work anywhere in progress. One journeys 
from city to city and from town to town 'to find at best 
only handfuls of workmen employed, and in the ma- 
jority of cases none. Modest piles of stone which have 
been cleaned, remains of carvings or ornamental parts 
assembled from the ruins, a few breached walls or 



MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS 235 

shattered buttresses repaired, some temporary roofing 
of tarred paper or lumber placed, and a few workmen 
cutting or placing stone or removing debris, comprise 
the maximum of effort ordinarily to be recorded. 

In the case of churches which were not classed as 
monuments, the responsibility for the deplorable con- 
ditions which have thus far prevailed is apparently 
to be divided between the cantonal commissions and 
the religious bodies, practically in all cases the Catholic 
church, to which the properties belong. The fact that 
the church, since the adoption of the separation laws, 
has been on the defensive in France, and that the larger 
number of churches are the property of the communes 
rather than of religious societies, doubtless goes far 
to explain the reluctance of the church to press its 
claims. 

Two commendable efforts to deal with the problem, 
however, are to be recorded. A Catholic society known 
as the (Euvre de Secours aux Eglises Devastees has 
erected on private properties some hundreds of bar- 
raques which serve as temporary parish churches, and 
has supplied the altar furnishings and other material 
needed for religious services. The amount expended 
by the society, nearly all of it contributed in France, 
is about 15,000,000 francs. The solution of the prob- 
lem of permanent reconstruction was begun by the 
formation in the several dioceses, in the fall of 1921, 
of cooperative societies the members of which are the 
communes holding title to churches that have been 
destroyed. In January, 1922, these societies united in 
the formation of a joint stock company (societe 
anonyme) known as the Groupement des Cooperatives 
Approuvees de Reconstruction des Eglises Devastees, 



236 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

with headquarters at Paris. The plans of the company 
contemplate the issuance in February of a first loan 
of 200,000,000 francs, secured by the indemnities due 
from the state, to start the work of rebuilding. 

That a good many of the historical and artistic 
monuments which were the priceless treasures of 
France will long preserve the memory of the war seems 
beyond question. The beautiful fagades of more than 
one cathedral or town hall will not be restored, not 
because money will be lacking but because restoration 
is practically impossible. There will be ruins and to 
spare for generations of tourists, sites in abundance for 
memorial tablets telling of buildings that have dis- 
appeared. It is unlikely, however, that they will long 
nourish hatred or revenge, for already the war is being 
forgotten as agriculture and industry revive and com- 
merce is resumed. The moral and spiritual effect of 
the loss of churches, which in many communities were 
the centers of religious and social life, is fuller of appre- 
hension. To the aggressive political elements in France 
which view the church as a menace, and to the larger 
number who look upon religion with indifference, the 
loss will doubtless seem negligible if not indeed a posi- 
tive gain; but for those to whom the church and its 
ministrations are still a solace and a guide the depriva- 
tion occasioned by the war creates a void which no 
merely economic reconstruction can hope to fill. It is 
indeed to be hoped that the work of reconstruction 
which is now upon the point of being begun may not 
lack either energy or support. 



CHAPTER XIV 

INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 

There is doubtless a popular impression that recon- 
struction in France, aside from the question of the 
German reparations and indemnities, is a matter wholly 
of domestic concern. It is true that the interpretation 
and enforcement of the reparation provisions of the 
treaty of Versailles is the most important international 
aspect of the case, and that a failure to obtain the 
reparations which the Reparations Commission have 
approved might be financially embarrassing for France. 
At a number of other points, however, the restoration 
of the devastated departments has touched the field 
of international relations or involved international 
agreements. Reference has already been made to the 
work of the Ministry of the Liberated Regions in 
obtaining cattle and other farm animals from abroad. 
The remaining questions of an international character 
have now to be considered. 

The law of war damages extended to foreigners in 
France as well as to French subjects the right to in- 
demnities for war losses, subject however to treaties 
subsequently to be concluded between France and the 
various countries concerned. Pending the conclusion 
of such treaties, foreign sinistres were at liberty to pre- 
pare and submit their claims to damages. The first 
and only agreement was made with Belgium. By an 

237 



238 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

"arrangement" entered into on October 9, 1919, each 
of the two countries accorded to the citizens of the 
other the right to reparation under the laws then in 
force. A similar reciprocal ffrivilege was granted to 
societies or corporations formed under the laws of the 
respective countries. Exception was made in the case 
of money exacted by the Germans, damages caused by 
French or Belgian troops or military requisitions if 
compensation for such damages was already provided 
for by law, and claims involving bonds or other secur- 
ities. The total amount of the damages to be paid 
was further made subject to the approval by the 
Reparations Commission of the aggregate claims 
against Germany which each government should 
present. 

With the approval of this agreement Belgian subjects 
in France became entitled to the same advances for 
agricultural or industrial reconstruction as were ac- 
corded to agricultural or industrial sinistres of French 
nationality. The same obligation to reemploy the 
indemnity, however, was imposed m the one case as 
in the other. 

In April, 1920, the right to indemnity for war dam- 
ages was extended to foreigners in Alsace and Lorraine. 

The distribution of coal received from Germany was 
intrusted in November, 1919, to a bureau of the then 
Ministry of Industrial Reconstitution. The German 
coal reached France by various routes. Shipments by 
rail were delivered at the French or Belgian frontiers, 
the parties to whom the coal was allotted paying the 
freight and customs charges from the frontier to the 
point of destination. Direct shipments by river and 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 239 

canal were made to Paris and the Nord department, 
the receiver of the coal providing the means of trans- 
port. Coal sent down the Rhine and transshipped at 
Antwerp or Gant was at the cost of the consumer so 
far as transport from those points was concerned. Coal 
sent up the Rhine was transshipped at Ludwigshafen, 
Mannheim, Strasburg, or other points, the government 
paying the cost of transfer and forwarding the coal to 
the consumer, subject to freight and customs charges 
if the shipment was by rail. If inland water routes 
were used the consumer had to provide the boats. 
Shipments were also made by sea via Rotterdam, either 
with or without transfer, the consumer finding the 
necessary boats in either case. In the case of small 
industries and domestic consumers deliveries were made 
through groups of importers at different ports. 

It will be recalled that the law of war damages pro- 
vided for the payment of such damages only as were 
material and direct. By the treaty of Versailles, how- 
ever, the Allied and Associated powers claimed the 
right to demand from Germany compensation in full 
for no less than ten classes of damages of a personal, 
indirect, or consequential kind. As set forth in Part 
VIII, Section I, Annex I of the treaty those classes 
comprise: 

1. Damages caused to civilians and their dependent rela- 
tives who suffered in their persons or in their life by any 
acts of war, including in such acts bombardments or other 
attacks by land, by sea, or by air, together with all their 
direct consequences or consequences resulting from the war 
operations of two groups of belligerents, wherever such acts 
occurred. 

2. Damages caused by Germany or its allies to civilians 



240 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

and their dependents who were victims of acts of cruelty, 
violence, or bad treatment (including in such acts the effects 
upon life or health of imprisonment, deportation, intern- 
ment, evacuation, abandonment on the sea, or forced labor) , 
wherever the acts in question were committed. 

3. Damages caused by Germany or its allies, either in 
their own territory or in territory occupied or invaded, to 
civil victims of any acts tending to affect the health, work- 
ing capacity, or honor of such persons or their dependents. 

4. Damages caused by any improper treatment of pris- 
oners of war. 

5. In the case of damages caused to the peoples of the 
Allied and Associated powers, the total amount of pensions 
or similar compensations due to military victims of the war 
(land, sea, or air forces), whether mutilated, wounded, sick, 
or invalid, as well as to the persons to whom such victims 
were the support, are to be calculated for each government, 
for the purpose of determining the reparations to be paid 
by Germany, on the basis of the capitalized value, at the 
date "when the treaty goes into effect, of such pensions or 
compensations according to the scale in force in France at 
that date. 

6. The cost of assistance furnished by the governments 
of the Allied and Associated powers to prisoners of war, to 
their families, -or to those to whom such persons were the 
support. 

7. Allotments made by the governments of the Allied and 
Associated powers to the families or dependents of persons 
who were mobilized or who ser^^ed in the army, the total 
amounts due for each year of the 'war being calculated, for 
each government, on the basis of the average scale obtain- 
ing in France each year for payments of this nature. 

8. Damages caused to civilians as a result of the obliga- 
tion imposed upon them by Germany or its allies to work 
without just remuneration. 

9. Damages affecting any property, wherever situated, 
belonging to one of the Allied and Associated powers or to 
persons living within their jurisdiction (military or naval 
works or material excepted) which has been carried away, 
seized, injured, or destroyed by the acts of Germany and 
its allies on land or sea or in the air, together with all 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 241 

damages following directly from hostilities or any opera- 
tions of war. 

10. Damages caused to the civil population by imposi- 
tions, fines, or similar exactions of Germany or its allies. 

In March, 1920, an interministerial committee of 
reparations was created to prepare the claims arising 
under these several heads. The president of the com- 
mittee was the French representative on the Repara- 
tions Commission. Within each ministry a special 
reparations service was organized to facilitate the work. 
The aggregate of these claims eventually submitted to 
the Reparations Commission was 77,833,987,076 francs, 
or more than one-third of the total claims presented. 
The items comprised 60,045,690,000 francs for military 
pensions and similar compensations, 12,936,956,824 
francs for allocations to families of persons mobilized, 
514,465,000 francs for civil pensions, 1,869,230,000 
francs for the improper treatment of civilians and 
prisoners of w^ar, 976,906,000 francs for aid furnished 
to prisoners of war and their families, 223,123,313 
francs for labor without just remuneration, and 1,267,- 
615,939 francs for fines or exactions of various kinds. 

Considerable sums, the aggregate amount of which 
cannot as yet be stated, were due to communes and 
departments on account of sales of abandoned property, 
requisitions, and evacuations made by or under the 
orders of the Allied forces in France. Such of these 
amounts as were paid through the British Claims Com- 
mission were regularly credited to the communes or 
departments concerned. In the spring of 1918 the 
British military authorities were authorized to sell to 
soldiers, through canteens, grocery supplies which had 



242 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

been abandoned in evacuated villages. The proceeds 
of these sales were paid to thfe communes through a 
financial ofiice at Abbeville, the distribution to indi- 
vidual claimants being made by the mayors. In addi- 
tion to sales, considerable quantities of food supplies 
and miscellaneous articles were evacuated by military- 
order; the settlement of these claims through British 
or French offices began at the end of December, 1918. 
Cattle evacuated in the spring of 1918 were turned 
over to food commissions, which purchased or requi- 
sitioned them, the proceeds being credited to the com- 
munes if the individual owners were unknown. In case 
of disputes between the French local authorities or 
sinistres and the British Claims Commission, payment 
was made by the Ministry of the Liberated Regions in 
accordance with the decision of a tribunal or an order 
of the Council of State. 

The amounts receivable from American sources 
covered requisitions, rental and other expenses of 
camps, accidents, and miscellaneous damages. Pay- 
ments for the lodging of troops were made through a 
disbursing officer to the treasurer {receveur municipal) 
of each commune, who distributed them to individual 
claimants; other payments were made individually, 
the mayor acting as the intermediary. Payments made 
after December 1, 1919, were credited to the prefects 
wherever the claims were to be classed as war damages ; 
claims for furniture and various kinds of equipment, 
however, continued to be settled directly by the Amer- 
ican quartermaster. 

Claims of all kinds to indemnity on account of acts 
of Portuguese troops were, as a rule, paid by the British 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 243 

military authorities, subject to reimbursement by 
Portugal. By an agreement concluded between France 
and Portugal on April 27, 1918, a Portuguese claims 
commission was created, but it was presently dissolved 
and the matter of claims intrusted to the Portuguese 
military attache at Paris. Claims against Belgium and 
Italy were left to be adjusted between the prefects and 
the diplomatic representatives of those countries at 
Paris. 

A slight controversy developed in 1921 over the 
claims of certain sinistres to damages caused by the 
establishment, before the armistice, of camps at which 
stocks of war material were assembled. In a number 
of cases, officials of the departments refused to transmit 
to the cantonal commissions these demands for indem- 
nity, on the ground that since the -control and dis- 
position of the stocks had been turned over to the 
bureau of industrial reconstruction, the demands in 
question should be submitted to that office. An appeal 
to the Minister of the Liberated Regions resulted in 
the issuance of directions, on August 19, to the prefects 
to transmit the papers, the cantonal commissions and 
not the departmental officials having the sole right to 
decide as to what were or what were not proper claims. 
As the final date for the filing of claims had already 
been fixed at August 1, the penalty was waived in the 
case of the sinistres whose papers had been held back. 

The law of August 6, 1917, creating the office of 
industrial reconstitution and appropriating 250,000,000 
francs for the purchase of materials, tools, etc., for 
industrial needs, contemplated purchases in foreign 
countries as well as in France. In July, 1920, prac- 



244 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

tically all of the wartime restrictions upon importation 
were removed. In order to facilitate the purchase of 
material for industrial reconstruction in Germany and 
the occupied territory along the Rhine, a joint ofi&ce 
of the Central Purchasing Agency (Comptoir Central 
d' Achats) and the service of industrial reconstruction 
was opened at Wiesbaden. This bureau undertook to 
furnish industrial sinistres with information regarding 
the possibilities of German manufacture, conditions of 
sale and delivery, and similar matters; to establish 
relations with German industrial groups, chambers of 
commerce, syndicates, etc., and in general to facilitate 
the operations of selection, purchase, transport, and 
payment of customs duties. Arrangements were made 
for payments for purchases through a French bank at 
Wiesbaden, the necessary supply of German marks 
being provided by the Ministry of Finance. The office 
of industrial reconstitution also undertook to provide 
safe-conducts for industrial sinistres who desired to 
visit the occupied parts of Germany, and to facilitate 
the entrance into France of German mechanics needed 
for the installation of German machinery. 

Purchases in England or the United States for pur- 
poses of industrial reconstruction were made through 
the Central Purchasing Agency at Paris or the Regional 
Agency at LiUe. Industrial products imported from 
the free zones of Gex and Savoie were subject to special 
regulation. 

The multiplication of financial transactions arising 
under the treaty of peace led in August, 1920, to the 
issuance of a decree centralizing the execution of all 
the financial provisions of the treaty in the hands of 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 245 

the Minister of Finance. Included in this was the 
preparation, in connection with the other ministries 
concerned, of the claims against Germany to be laid 
before the Reparations Commission. 

The supervision of the large number of foreign 
laborers and workmen in France, the larger proportion 
of whom were employed in the liberated regions, was 
an international problem of a different character. The 
thousands of laborers who had been brought in during 
the war from Italy, Portugal, China, and other coun- 
tries had rendered invaluable service, and many of 
them continued to be employed after the armistice, 
as indeed they had been employed before, in the work 
of reconstruction. A considerable number pf skilled 
workmen and foremen, principally from Belgium, had 
also been employed in industrial centers. The presence 
of these foreign laborers, however, aroused considerable 
opposition notwithstanding the general labor shortage, 
while the crowded and unsanitary conditions in which 
many of them lived were dangerous to morals and to 
public health. 

In November, 1920, the existing regulations regard- 
ing admission, identity cards, and supervision were 
revised, and an effort was made to replace foreign 
labor with French labor wherever possible. Instruc- 
tions issued by the oflSce of industrial reconstruction 
caUed the attention of employers to the fact that 
foreign workmen were not to be employed if satisfac- 
tory French workmen could be had, and required appli- 
cations for foreign labor to be addressed to the Minister 
of Labor at Paris. It was further pointed out that 
foreign workmen were to receive the same treatment 



246 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

as French workmen, and that the rates of wages should 
be the same as were normally paid to French workmen 
in the same locality. 

On September 3, 1919, a convention was concluded 
between France and Poland for the regulation of immi- 
gration and emigration between the two countries. 
The nationals of each country were accorded the right 
to seek work in the other, and they might be recruited 
where considerable numbers of laborers were required. 
They were guaranteed the same rates of wages as were 
paid for similar work to nationals of the country in 
which they were employed, and equal protection under 
labor laws, including compensation for accidents. If 
later agreements with other countries granted more 
advantageous labor conditions, the same advantages 
were to be enjoyed reciprocally by French and Polish 
subjects. No special authorization was required in the 
case of the migration of individual laborers, and those 
who had not previously been engaged by employers 
were to enjoy upon arrival the facilities of government 
immigration stations and employment bureaus while 
seeking work. In case of an oversupply of labor in a 
particular industry or locality, notice of the fact was 
to be given. 

The recruitment of laborers was subjected to various 
restrictions intended primarily to protect the labor 
supply and the economic development of the two 
couniries, A joint commission sitting alternately at 
Paris and Warsaw was given general oversight of the 
matter, the particular arrangements in France being 
intrusted to the supervision of the National Employ- 
ment Bureau and in Poland to the National Bureau 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 247 

of Employment and the Protection of Emigrants. In 
addition, the right was reserved to accept or reject 
emigrants collectively recruited before their departure 
from the country, and to enforce suitable conditions 
regarding sanitation and transport. 

The convention was to continue in force for a year, 
subject to renewal from yejar to year if three months' 
notice of abrogation was not given. It did not in 
practice add greatly to the labor supply of the invaded 
departments, political and military conditions in 
Poland preventing the recruitment of any large number 
of laborers. In September a labor convention of sub- 
stantially similar tenor was concluded between Franc"fe 
and Italy.^ 

On July 12, 1920, the German delegates to the con- 
ference at Spa submitted to the conference an elaborate 
plan for the reconstruction of the devastated regions 
of all countries affected by the war. The plan contem- 
plated the formation of an international syndicate of 
contractors which should undertake, in agreement with 
the governments immediately interested, the clearing 
(deblaiement) of the devastated areas, the restoration 
of industrial and agricultural establishments ^^d rail- 
ways, and the provision of new houses for the popu- 
lation. The necessary labor would be drawn from the 
allied countries and Germany, and the work of recon- 
struction was to be carried on under commercial and 
not under bureaucratic methods, without excessive 
profits, and on a basis of equal collaboration of em- 

*The journal Le Batiment for November 24, 1921, in urging that 
preparations be made for the effective employment of large numbers 
of Italian laborers who were expected, stated that work to the 
amount of about 1,500,000,000 francs had been reserved for Italiana. 



248 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

ployers and workmen. One of the aims of the proposal, 
in addition to securing the speedy and systematic re- 
building of devastated territory by international effort, 
was to enable Germany to discharge a part of its in- 
demnity obligations by furnishing labor and materials.^ 

At the time when this proposal was submitted 
no agreement had yet been reached by the Supreme 
Council regarding the reparation terms to be demanded 
of Germany. That fact, together with the generally 
hostile attitude of the conference toward Germany and 
doubt of the sincerity of German intentions, doomed 
the plan to rejection without any serious consideration. 
The suggestion of allowing Germany to share directly 
in the reconstruction of the devastated departments, 
however, had been launched, and it was not thereafter 
absent from either official or public discussion of the 
reconstruction problem. 

The decision of the Supreme Council regarding 
reparations — a decision destined to undergo modifica- 
tion later and to provoke heated controversy in French 
political circles — was not reached until January 29, 
1921, the total of reparations then demanded being 
fixed at £11,300,000,000, payable in installments over 
forty-two years. At a series of conferences of inter- 
national labor organizations, held at Amsterdam in 
March and April, resolutions were adopted criticizing 
the allied governments for over-emphasizing the finan- 
cial side of reparations, and urging that Germany 
should be made to contribute to the reconstruction of 
devastated areas by itself performing a substantial part 
of the work of restoration. 

*The text of the proposal is in the Paris Temps, July 13, 1920. 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 249 

On April 22, in a note to the British government, 
Germany renewed its proposal for the reconstruction 
of the devastated territories. The bearing of this pro- 
posal upon the agreement later concluded at Wiesbaden 
is so important that the text may properly 'be given 
practically in full ^ : 

"Germany is absolutely persuaded that it is unavoidably 
necessary for the purpose of restoring economic peace 
throughout the world that the territories devastated through 
the war should be reconstructed and restored. Until this 
is done there is danger that feelings of hate will continue 
to exist among the nations concerned. 

"Germany, therefore, declares herself once more entirely 
willing to cooperate in this reconstruction with all the means 
and strength at her disposal, and to take into account in 
regard thereto, in every individual case, each wish of the 
powers concerned as far as possible. 

"With regard to the method of accomplishing reconstruc- 
tion the German government, while maintaining the pro- 
posals made by it since 1919, begs to summarize the fol- 
lowing possibilities: 

"(1) Germany could undertake the reconstruction of spe- 
cified town localities or villages, or of such specified portions 
of the territory to be reconstructed as might be connected 
with each other, taking over the entire course either as a 
state undertaking or by directing the work of international 
colonizing and settlement associations. In that event the 
experience gained by Germany during the reconstruction of 
devastated territory in East Prussia would be of special 
assistance. Germany will refrain from explaining this pro- 
posal more in detail at present, as the fundamental idea has, 
up to the present, met with objections on the part of the 
Allied governments. 

" (2) Germany is further willing, apart from the method 
of settlement suggested under Section 1, to place at the 
disposal of the Allied governments immediately all assist- 
ance for the reconstruction of the devastated regions in 

*The text which follows is that which was given to the press at 
London on April 22. The nunaerous infelicities of translation have 
not been removed. 



250 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

northern France and Belgium. The German industries have 
resolved to offer the following services: To undertake at 
once in the devastated territories, on being informed of the 
detailed wishes of the Allied governments, the work of 
clearing the ground and of afforestation; to repair and re- 
build brickwork, and also to build works for the production 
of chalk, plaster, cement, etc., in territories to be recon- 
structed; to deliver on request machinery and appliances 
connected with the obtaining and preparation of raw ma- 
terials for buildings in existence on the spot and, in addition 
to this, to deliver German building materials and requisites 
from Germany; to make arifengements that all appliances 
and machinery required for building purposes not existing 
in the reconstruction territory should be obtained from Ger- 
many if necessary, including such building materials as are 
requisite for first installation; to begin immediately with a 
plan for building construction of all kinds at least 25,000 
wooden houses (dwelling houses), these to be erected before 
the beginning of the cold season, with a view to coping with 
the extraordinary housing shortage in the devastated dis- 
tricts. In addition, provision of fittings — for example, 
furniture, stoves, etc. — and the execution of deep and shal- 
lt)W excavations of all kinds, according to plans and under 
control of the French authorities. 

"Whether this construction is to be carried out by con- 
tract of the French or German government, by public 
contract or private, or by means of all three methods, is to 
be decided according to the wishes of the Allied govern- 
ments. 

"The German government is prepared, on the basis of 
this proposal, to enter into arrangements with German 
building laborers' organizations, also organizations of fore- 
men and officials, and guarantees that members of these 
organizations are ready by their labor to cooperate in the 
reconstruction of the devastated districts." 

After specifying the steps which Germany is pre- 
pared to take in aid of the speedy restoration of the 
houses and real property that have been destroyed, the 
note continues: 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 251 

"The government is ready to take over the entire cost of 
such buildings as far as it can be made in paper marks, to 
be reckoned against the reparations account, while payment 
of expenditure which has to be met in foreign currency i? 
reserved for further arrangement. Should the Allied 
governments desire the cooperation of the German govern- 
ment in the work of reconstruction to be given in any other 
form than that proposed, the German government is pre- 
pared thoroughly and conscientiously to examine any sug- 
gestions made by the Allies and any proposal which may 
be made, and to consider them with a view to cooperation 
in the work of reconstruction corresponding to the wishes 
of the Allies. 

"The German government requests the Allied govern- 
ments to initiate as quickly as possible the necessary dis- 
cussions concerning the details of the arrangements to be 
arrived at." 

On the same day on which the text of the German 
proposal was made public in London, a meeting at Paris 
of delegates from the devastated departments, held 
under the auspices of the General Labor Confederation 
(Confederation Generale du Travail), adopted reso- 
lutions calling for German cooperation in reconstruc- 
tion through the supply of materials and labor, and 
creating a committee of forty-eight members, four from 
each department, to take up the whole question of 
reconstruction with the government. A day or two 
later the German government, in its counter-proposals 
regarding reparations, again affirmed its willingness 
to undertake the reconstruction of designated towns, 
villages, and hamlets, or to collaborate in reconstruc- 
tion by furnishing at the cost of Germany labor, mate- 
rials, and resources, "or in any other manner acceptable 
to the Allies." 

Notwithstanding the fact that no formal agreement 



252 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

on the subject was concluded with Germany until 
October, negotiations looking to German cooperation 
were early undertaken. On May 28 the Minister of 
the Liberated Regions, M. Loucheur, presided at a 
meeting of French and German experts at Paris at 
which plans for the erection in the invaded depart- 
ments of 25,000 houses made in Germany, at an esti- 
mated cost of 350,000,000 francs, were discussed. The 
project called for a uniform type of house with double 
walls of concrete plaster, the intervening space being 
packed with compressed peat. The roofs, of slate 
or tile, were to be provided locally; all of the other 
material and the labor for construction were to be 
furnished by Germany. It was announced that the 
models and specifications submitted were entirely satis- 
factory and that the houses would be attractive, com- 
fortable, and durable. 

At a conference at Wiesbaden, on June 13, between 
M. Loucheur and Dr. Walter Rathenau, the German 
Minister of Reconstruction, and at a later conference 
at the end of August in which French and German 
experts participated, the terms of an accord were fully 
discussed. The final agreement, signed by the two 
ministers at Wiesbaden on October 6, is an elaborate 
and technical document many of whose provisions 
relate rather to the general subject of reparations than 
to the particular question of reconstruction.^ Briefly 
stated, the agreement provided for the creation in 
Germany of a private organization through which the 
delivery of materials to French sinistres is to be 

*The text of the agreement is in L' Europe Nouvelle (Paris), 
October 15. 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 253 

effected, and for the formation in France of groups or 
organizations of sinistres through which requests for 
such materials are to be made. The materials so 
furnished are to be used exclusively for the reconsti- 
tution of the devastated departments. The value of 
the materials delivered is not to exceed 7,000,000,000 
gold marks for the period from October 1, 1921, to 
May 1, 1926, the materials being paid for by France, 
until 1926, to an amount not exceeding 1,000,000,000 
gold marks a year, in the form of a credit on the 
indemnity payments due from Germany, and after 
1926 in ten annual installments. No obligation, how- 
ever, is imposed upon the French sinistres to purchase 
materials from Germany if they prefer to obtain them 
elsewhere. 

The announcement of this agreement precipitated a 
lively discussion in the French press and in Parliament. 
It was urged that payment in kind rather than in 
money was contrary to the provisions of the treaty of 
Versailles, that French industry would suffer from large 
importations of German goods, and that the admission 
of German manufactures and German workmen would 
result in a temporary German colonization of a region 
which the German armies had only lately ravaged. On 
the whole, however, the Wiesbaden accord was well 
received. Payments in kind were, after all, equivalent 
to payments in money if prices were fair ; and since it 
was doubtful if Germany would be able to pay in 
money all that the treaty had demanded, it was good 
policy to accept partial payment in goods. Moreover, 
the end to be kept in view was the restoration of the 
devastated regions, and if German payments in kind 



254 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

would help to speed that process it was hard to see 
why they should not be welcomed. 

On the other hand the hostile attitude of the British 
government, which appears to have resented the inde- 
pendent action of France, brought the Wiesbaden 
agreement into the field of international controversy 
from which, at the time when this chapter was written, 
it had not yet emerged. The Reparations Commission, 
to whom the agreement was submitted, approved the 
general principle of payment in goods and services, but 
referred to the governments represented on the Com- 
mission the consideration of a number of points in 
which the agreement appeared to involve a departure 
from the provisions of the Versailles treaty. 

The conclusion of the Wiesbaden agreement was 
shortly followed' by a proposal, submitted jointly by 
one of the affiliated organizations of the General Labor 
Confederation and a corresponding organization of 
German technicians and industrials, for the reconstruc- 
tion of a group of eleven villages in the cantons of 
Peronne and Chaulnes in the department of the 
Somme. All of the villages had been totally destroyed. 
It was proposed that the rebuilding of the villages, 
which before the war numbered 3,740 inhabitants and 
750 houses, should conform to plans drawn up by the 
sinistres with the approval of the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions; but the labor and material, it was 
understood, would be provided by Germany. The esti- 
mate called for 2,500 workmen, with which force it was 
believed that the entire undertaking could be completed 
in a year. The cost would be charged to the German 
indemnity under the Wiesbaden agreement, the sinis- 



ASPECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION 255 

tres of course surrendering their claims to war damages 
for so much of their property as was restored. 

On November 2 a delegation from the German or- 
ganization visited the region, and subsequently con- 
ferred at Paris with M. Loucheur, with representatives 
of the General Labor Confederation, and with a number 
of officials. In spite, however, of the approval with 
which the proposed undertaking was received, the fear 
was expressed that the presence of a large body of 
German workmen might be resented by the French 
population. The interparliamentary group of sena- 
tors and deputies from the invaded departments urged 
that proper precautions be taken at this point. There 
was general agreement that strict police regulations 
ought to be enforced, and that the Germans should not 
be allowed to circulate outside of the region in which 
they worked. The Minister of the Liberated Regions 
accordingly deferred his decision until the views of the 
sinistres could be learned. In December the inhabit- 
ants of the twelve communes, by a slight majority, ex- 
pressed an opinion adverse to the employment of Ger- 
man labor. The impartiality of the inquiry, which was 
held under the direction of the prefect, was questioned 
in the press, but in view of the decision no further ac- 
tion in the matter was taken for the time being. 

On November 30 the attention of the Minister of 
the Liberated Regions was called to the lamentable 
condition of a group of communes in the region of the 
Chemin des Dames, the reconstruction of which had 
thus far been wholly neglected. In response to this 
appeal M. Loucheur stated that if the Wiesbaden pro- 
posal was not accepted by the German government 



256 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

within fifteen days/ he would place the work of re- 
building the villages in the hands of Paris industrials 
who would use German material and German wooden 
houses and employ Italian labor, and that the work 
of restoration would be pushed with the least possible 
delay. 

'It had not yet been accepted by the French government. 



CHAPTER XV 

COMMUNITY INTERESTS AND TOWN PLANNING 

What has been said in the preceding chapters has 
had to do with the large divisions into which the work 
of reconstruction naturally falls. It was inevitable that 
the restoration of transport, industry, mines, and agri- 
culture, and to a lesser degree of forests and monu- 
ments, should not only have absorbed the larger part 
of the money and the greater share of the effort devoted 
to the rehabilitation of the invaded departments, but 
that it should also embody the nearest approach to a 
consistent and completed program. The restoration 
of normal social conditions in the devastated area, how- 
ever, involved numerous questions only incidentally 
connected with the larger fields whose lines have thus 
far been traced. Sanitation, medical service, schools, 
and child life, for example, were for the people as a 
whole hardly less important than the reconstruction 
of factories and farms or the restoration of railways 
and telegraphs. It is the work of reconstruction in 
these incidental and somewhat unrelated fields that 
has now to be examined. 

Immediately following the conclusion of the armis- 
tice agreement of November 11, 1918, the government 
turned its attention to the question of public health 
in the liberated departments. A circular of November 
30, issued jointly by the ministers of the Interior and 

257 



258 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

of the Liberated Regions, called the attention of the 
prefects to the supreme importance of reconstituting 
medical and pharmaceutical service, hospitals, and 
local sanitation. With a view to centralizing in the 
hands of the prefects the numerous requests for med- 
ical service which hitherto had been presented to the 
military authorities, and to facilitating the return of 
doctors and pharmacists, the prefects were directed to 
draw up general plans showing the medical needs of 
the several departments. In the meantime, until 
civilian practitioners returned, medical relief would 
continue to be given by the army. Local hospitals, if 
capable of repair, were to be put in condition ; if hos- 
pitals had been destroyed, barraques or other suitable 
buildings were to be used. The local service of sani- 
tary inspection was also to be resumed as rapidly as 
possible. To insure proper compliance with these re- 
quests the director of the Pasteur Institute at Lille, 
Dr. Calmette, was appointed a special commissioner. 
In March, 1919, detailed monthly reports of the num- 
ber and occupations of the returning population were 
called for as a basis for determining allowances to be 
made to doctors and pharmacists who had resumed 
practice. 

Down to July 1, 1919, medical relief stations {pastes 
de secours) had been established to the number of 44 
in the Aisne, 42 in the Ardennes, 26 in the Marne, 19 
in the Meuse, 13 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, 26 in the 
Nord, 19 in the Oise, 22 in the Pas-de-Calais, 20 in the 
Somme, and 5 in the Vosges. More than 800,000 
articles of clothing had been furnished by the Ministry 
of the Liberated Regions, at a cost of over 16,000,000 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 259 

francSj while the budgets had carried credits of 27,- 
300,000 francs for 1918 and 172,085,374 francs for the 
first six months of 1919 for purposes of temporary- 
relief. 

The physical condition of the children in some of 
the departments was alarming. In June, 1919, in an 
article in the Paris Figaro, Dr. Calmette reported that 
at Lille, where the population had suffered more than 
anywhere else from want of food, sixty-five per cent, 
of the children in most of the schools were tuberculous. 
To deal with this situation a great sanitary camp was 
established at Camiers, between Staples and Boulogne, 
close to the Channel, where an English military hos- 
pital had been maintained during the war. The camp, 
purchased from the British military authorities, com- 
prised some three hundred well-built barraques with 
disinfection apparatus, many separate sleeping rooms, 
baths, play rooms, a moving-picture hall, and electric 
light. The capacity of the camp was about six thou- 
sand, and beginning with July 14 special trains carried 
five hundred tuberculous children twice a week from 
the regions of Lille, Roubaix, and Tourcoing to 
Camiers. The personnel, recruited principally from 
teachers in the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais, included 
instructors in singing and the playing of games, many 
of the latter being Americans. In 1920, when the camp 
was reopened, provision was made for 6,000 girls and 
6,000 boys for periods of two months each. In 1921 
5,400 girls and 6,000 boys enjoyed the benefits of the 
camp. 

In September, 1920, a committee in Alsace arranged 
a three weeks' outing for six hundred children from 



260 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the Nord, the Pas-de-Calais, the Somme, "the Aisne, 
and the Marne. The children were received at the 
St. Louis railway station by a representative of the 
French government, the mayors of the communes of 
the canton, and a band, and were distributed among 
families which had competed for the honor of enter- 
taining them. For many of the poorer children cloth- 
ing was provided by their Alsacian hosts. 

The unportant part which women had taken from 
the beginning of the war in works of relief, and the 
continuance of such work in many cases after the 
armistice, led in November, 1919, to the appointment 
by the Minister of the Liberated Regions of women 
inspectors for the invaded departments. In addition 
to helping in a general way the betterment of physical 
and moral conditions affecting women, the inspectors 
were charged with -the organization and supervision of 
the visiting nurses .who had been appointed, at the 
instance of Dr. Calmette, to safeguard the health of 
children, and who had opened a number of dispensaries 
and medical relief stations. Training courses for 
nurses, already organized at Paris, included maternity 
nursing, the care and feeding of children, children's 
diseases, school hygiene, and physical education. 

The work of these visiting nurses, often done under 
trying conditions and with inadequate equipment, 
merits far more praise than it has received. At Follem- 
bray, in the Aisne, for example, an outbreak of typhoid 
of which three cases had already developed was stopped 
by the prompt action of a nurse. Seven dispensaries 
had been opened in the Aisne by the summer of 1920, 
and the medical inspection of school children was under 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 261 

way at Laon, St. Quentin, and La Capelle. At Pont- 
faverger, in the Marne, the nurses held a daily medical 
and surgical clinic, took charge of the children out of 
school hours, and prepared a children's Christmas tree. 
At the industrial centers of Briey and Longwy, in 
Meurthe-et-Moselle, they carried on a service of med- 
ical inspection of schools which had been established 
by the prefect. The first medical relief post in the 
Ardennes was opened at Revin; on the first day 
twenty-six mothers brought their babies for the nurses' 
inspection. At Rocroi, where the resident doctor and 
his father died of diphtheria which the doctor had con- 
tracted from a patient, the nurses cared successfully for 
the other members of the family and buried the dead. 
The dispensaries opened at Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, 
Cambrai, Le Cateau, and Caudry, all important indus- 
trial centers, rendered inestimable service to the sick 
and the victims of accidents. An important station 
was opened at St. Mihiel, an open-air school was estab- 
lished at Clennont-en-Argonne, and school inspection 
was instituted at Montmedy and Verdun. 

In addition to medical service of various kinds, the 
nurses were often placed in charge of local cantines 
opened by the Ministry of the Liberated Regions for 
the general use of the community, and of food stations 
installed in public schools for the benefit of children 
who were underfed. One of the most attractive of the 
cantines was established at Lille in February, 1920, 
in a location convenient for the employees of business 
houses. Restaurants for men and women served meals 
at a cost of 2.25 francs; two daintily furnished rest 
rooms offered writing facilities and illustrated journals; 



262 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

and fetes organized by the nurses brought hundreds of 
children from the schools. 

Medical inspection of schools and school children in 
the devastated departments was all the more necessary 
because of the physical condition of school buildings. 
While the schools themselves have been everywhere 
reestablished, no public school buildings that were 
destroyed have yet been rebuilt and only a few of those 
that were injured have been completely restored. 
Here and there private philanthropy or corporation 
enterprise has presented to a community a new and 
attractive school building, but with rare exceptions 
the schools throughout the invaded regions are still 
housed in wooden barraques or temporary structures 
or in old buildings but partially repaired. Most of 
the school buildings are unsightly, poorly furnished, 
and with only primitive sanitary conveniences. The 
same thing is true in general of the public buildings 
of communes and departments and the offices of the 
postal, telegraph, and telephone services. In Novem- 
ber, 1921, the organization of the mayors of the devas- 
tated regions, whose plan for a joint loan for recon- 
struction has already been mentioned, expressed the 
opinion that the proceeds of the loan should be used 
in the first instance for the restoration of schools and 
hospitals. The loan itself, however, has not yet been 
issued.^ 

Reference has already been made to the large num- 
ber of wells that were destroyed during the war, and 

* A circular to the prefects, issued on January 3, 1922, by the 
ministers of Public Instruction and Fine Arts and of the Liberated 
Regions, modified somewhat the administrative formalities with a 
view to facilitating the restoration of school buildings. 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 263 

to the necessity of protecting the inhabitants of the 
invaded departments from the menace of polluted 
drinking water. One of the interesting experiments of 
the Ministry of the Liberated Regions was the estab- 
lishment of traveling laboratories for the analysis of 
water. The plan, adapted from the practice of the 
British army, comprised the establishment in each 
department of a laboratory which could be moved from 
place to place, samples of water for analysis being col- 
lected by automobile from near-by localities and the 
results of the analysis sent to the technical services of 
the departments for their guidance in cleaning or re- 
constituting the water supply. Thanks in large part 
to the care which was taken, by this and other means, 
to insure the purity of water for drinking and culinary 
purposes, a war which was attended by unprecedented 
pollution of the soil was not followed by any important 
outbreak of disease. 

Numerous accidents, some of them fatal, due to the 
explosion of munitions left in the ground or assembled 
at dumps led to urgent appeals to the inhabitants to 
use reasonable care and intelligence, and to report 
promptly to the mayor any munitions found. The 
Bulletin oj the Liberated Regions, in one of its earliest 
issues, laid down the following rules, among others, 
some of them quite as applicable to tourists and casual 
visitors to-day as they were to the population to which 
they were addressed: 

"Never touch munitions. 

"In particular, do not smoke or throw away matches 
near a munitions dump. 
"Give up looking for souvenirs. When you take a cart- 



264 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

ridge shell you scatter the powder on the ground. The 
train of powder which you make in that way will be set 
on fire by a passing auto and will explode the dump. 

"Do not touch grenades. They are often ready to go 
off at the slightest shock, and they will explode in your 
hands. Don't fish for grenades. 

"Do not look for fuses to make fireworks. Some of them 
go off of themselves. You will always end by dropping 
some of them on a pile of munitions and exploding it. 

"If you find any kind of a device in the field, do not 
touch it. Plant a stick beside it so that you can find it 
again, and give notice. 

"If you are afraid of munitions too close to your house, 
or if an explosion has broken your windows, inform the 
mayor of your commune. He will know the address of the 
proper military authority, who will at once send an oflBcer 
to reassure you and, if necessary, workmen to repair 
damages.^ 

"If the workmen are at work in your commune, don't go 
to watch them work. There is always too much of a crowd 
about those who are handling munitions. 

"Do not have an exaggerated fear of gas shells. They 
are inoffensive in small quantities, they do not all explode 
at once, and they contain too little gas to hurt you at a 
distance. Do not handle them, however, because some of 
them secrete a corrosive fluid which may burn you. 

"Be your own police. If no one ever touches munitions, 
you may be sure that they will not go off of themselves." 

A law of May 1, 1921, extended to third parties {i. e., 
persons not employers or workmen) the right to repa- 
ration for injuries to person or property caused by 
explosion, fire, the emanation of noxious or poisonous 
gases, etc., in munitions depots or arsenals, or while 
munitions were in transit, or in the case of munitions 
which had been abandoned and left without care. The 
benefits of the law were made retroactive, but the state 
reserved the right, whether the injuries in question 

^Condensed from the original. 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 265 

were suffered before or after the adoption of the law, 
to prosecute the persons responsible for the accidents. 

In spite of all the progress made in the restoration 
of the invaded departments, many persons continued 
to be in need of government relief. As late as August, 
1921, the ministers of the Liberated Regions and of the 
Interior found it necessary to instruct the prefects as 
to their powers and duties in the matter, and to remind 
them that the government had not ceased to interest 
itself in the needs of refugees. The prefects were 
directed to give notice that indoor relief, including 
medical attendance, was available under existing laws 
for needy persons; and while the requirements of law 
were to be complied with, a generous interpretation 
was to be given in all cases and prompt action was 
expected. Among the special cases to which relief was 
to be extended were those of agricultural sinistres whose 
land was not yet in a position to be worked, and of 
sinistres who because of age or infirmity were unable 
to resume their former occupation or rebuild their 
properties. On the other hand, since the system of 
allocations to refugees as such must in the nature of 
the case cease before long, the prefects were urged to 
hasten as much as possible the return of refugees to 
their homes. 

The budget commission of 1921, in the report to 
which extended reference has been made in a previous 
chapter, raised the question as to whether certain new 
sanitary regulations which by law had been made 
applicable to buildings erected in the devastated 
departments were not in many respects excessively 
burdensome to the sinistres, and the more because the 



266 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

requirements had not in fact been insisted upon in 
other parts of France. In October, 1921, in a circular 
to the prefects, the Minister of the Liberated Regions 
pointed out that the regulations in question were to be 
interpreted with generosity and common sense, that 
they were not to be treated as if they were "an intan- 
gible formula or an immutable rite," and that the spirit 
rather than the letter of the law was to be regarded. 
An intelligent application of the sanitary building 
regulations which obtained in every commune before 
the war, and which were not a dead letter now, would 
constitute a sufficient conformity to the law. Since, 
however, the building permits which by law were re- 
quired to be issued by the mayors could not in practice 
be issued without great delay because of the sanitary 
requirements, the prefects were directed to place at the 
disposal of the mayors a number of competent assist- 
ants sufficient to hasten the process, "in order that it 
might not be said that the regions which have suffered 
from the war have not been treated, in the matter of 
sanitary regulations, like the rest of France." 

In August, 1920, the eight-hour law of April 23, 1919, 
was extended to the building industry and other public 
works in the devastated departments. The effect of 
the law upon the reconstitution of the mining industry 
has already been referred to. While the law met the 
wishes of organized labor and placed the work of 
reconstruction, so far as hours of labor were concerned, 
upon the same basis as that of industrial occupations 
in other parts of France, many persons to whom the 
delays of reconstruction have particularly appealed 
have not ceased to criticize the extension of the law 
to the invaded departments as unwise. The operation 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 267 

of the law has undoubtedly decreased the average daily 
production of labor, but it can hardly be said to have 
checked the progress of reconstruction as a whole. In 
general, the arguments for or against an eight-hour day 
do not appear to have any essentially different force 
in such a situation as prevails in the invaded depart- 
ments than they have elsewhere. The cardinal weak- 
ness of the labor situation is the lack of labor, not the 
shortness of the working day. 

A somewhat peculiar problem of war damages was 
presented in the case of priests who, having in their 
charge the furnishings or other personal property of 
churches, claimed indemnity for such of the property 
as had been destroyed, injured, or carried off. Under 
the separation laws all church property was inven- 
toried, and such of it as was not turned over to local 
parish societies, which were required to be formed if 
the legal right to the parish property was to be retained, 
became the property of the commune or department. 
Notice was accordingly given by the Ministry of the 
Liberated Regions that where the personal property 
for which claims to indemnity were presented by 
priests was in fact the property of a religious society, 
it was the society and not the priest that must make 
the claim; while if the property in question did not 
appear in the inventory made under the separation law 
of 1905, it would be presumed to belong to the com- 
mune or department. In the latter case it would be 
subject to indemnity like other communal or depart- 
mental property. 

Many troublesome questions were presented by the 
necessity of relocating in many instances the bound- 
aries of private properties and public roads or streets, 



268 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

and by the desire of a good many communities to take 
advantage of this necessity to widen or straighten 
streets and improve or increase open spaces. Various 
laws and decrees authorized the condemnation of 
private property for the purpose of making new align- 
ments, the owners of course receiving compensation as 
a part of their war damages. Since, however, the re- 
construction of buildings could not proceed until 
boundary lines had been determined, any delaj'' in 
settling questions of alignment was likely to hold up 
indefinitely rebuilding plans otherwise complete. In 
a very large number of cases, particularly in large towns 
where improvements were contemplated and in small 
villages that had been completely destroyed, this result 
actually happened. Part of the responsibility un- 
doubtedly attaches to the technical services of the com- 
munes and departments, which appear to have been 
often inexcusably slow in running lines even where no 
changes of alignment were proposed. The larger 
measure of responsibility, however, falls upon the state, 
which has not yet given to the communes the financial 
aid necessary to enable them to put into effect the 
comprehensive plans of reconstruction which, under a 
new town planning law, they are required to draw up.^ 
The subject of town planning, in the sense in which 
the term is familiar in England and the United States, 
had never before the war aroused much interest in 
France. Aside from the natural conservatism of an 
old country thickly dotted with picturesque communi- 
on has been suggested that the difficulty might be overcome by 
expropriation by the state, under the law of war damages, of the 
property in question, followed by cession by the state to the com- 
munes. Under this plan the determination of damages would fol- 
low the regular procedure without delaying the adoption of plaM of 
alignment {Journal des Regions Liherees, August 14, 1921). 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 269 

ties and rich in history and tradition, there is in France 
a pronounced aversion to the geometrical regularity 
and architectural sameness which characterize many 
American cities, and which reach the lowest depths of 
dreariness in many American and English factory 
towns. Moreover, most of the larger towns of France, 
as in all old countries, have grown by comparatively 
slow accretions while many small towns have hardly 
grown at all, so that with the exception of Paris, where 
the methodical laying out of various quarters has from 
time to time occurred, the question of replanning a 
town as a whole has not been a practical issue. 

Early in the war, however, considerable interest was 
aroused by the suggestion that the general principles of 
town planning might well be applied in the reconstruc- 
tion of the devastated towns of the invaded depart- 
ments. A number of architects and others expressed 
the opinion that it ought to be possible, without doing 
violence to the essential character of domestic or public 
architecture or the time-honored spirit of French com- 
munity life, to give to the new towns and villages 
improved general plans, wider and straighter streets, 
more open spaces, more commodious and artistic public 
buildings, and better drainage and water supply. Sev- 
eral organizations, among them an energetic society 
known as La Renaissance des Cites, gave their support 
to the proposal, and a considerable literature of books, 
magazine articles, and reports discussed the question 
in its various aspects.^ 

Largely as a result of this agitation and discussion 

'Reference may be made particularly to A. R. Agache, Comment 
reconstruire nos cites detruites (1915) ; A. Godin, La reparation des 
maisons endommagees par la guerre (1916) ; J. M. Auburtin and 
H. Blanchard, La cite de demain dans les regions devastees (1917) ; 



270 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the Parliament, on March 14, 1919, while the law of 
war damages was still under consideration, adopted a 
town planning law.^ By the terms of the law every 
city of 10,000 inhabitants or over was required to draw 
up within three years, at the expense of the state, a 
comprehensive plan for the rearrangement of its 
streets, squares, public gardens, playgrounds, and other 
open spaces, together with a program of restrictions 
to be imposed in such matters as public health, the 
height of buildings, drainage, garbage disposal, etc. 
Similar requirements were made of towns of from 5,000 
to 10,000 inhabitants attaining a certain percentage of 
population growth from one census to another, of 
certain health or pleasure resorts having large tem- 
porary populations at certain seasons, and of working- 
men's quarters (cites) erected by corporations or indi- 
viduals. The preparation of plans was specifically 
required in the case of towns or villages of any size 
that had been destroyed. To supervise the execution 
of the law a special commission was created within 
the Ministry of the Interior, together with local 
commissions in each department. The departmental 
commissions were to give hearings to representatives 
of architectural, historical, commercial, or other soci- 
eties interested, to representatives of transportation 
companies, and to the mayors of communes. Once the 
plan was adopted, all building operations were re- 
quired to conform to it, permission to build being 
given by the mayor. 

Leon Rosenthal, Villes et villages frauQais apres la guerre (1918) ; 
A. Duchene, Pour la reconstruction des cites industrielles (1919). 
There is an American committee of La Renaissance des Cites, with 
headquarters at Boston. 
'See Appendix A. 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 271 

The law of 1919 was not, indeed, the first attempt of 
the government to deal with town planning. An 
earlier law of 1884 had required municipalities, at 
their own expense, to draw up comprehensive plans 
of street lines and levels; it did not, however, contem- 
plate the possible extension of the communal limits 
and in fact had remained a dead letter. In 1916 the 
special service which had been organized within the 
Ministry of the Interior to aid in the reconstruction of 
dwellings had reminded the prefects that the recon- 
struction of buildings ought not to be looked at solely 
from the point of view of each structure as an isolated 
unit, but that the effect of the buildings taken as a 
whole was also to be considered. The law of 1919, 
however, made binding upon the devastated com- 
munes, as well as upon all other communes in France, 
what hitherto had only been recommended, and at the 
same time relieved the communes of the initial ex- 
pense by making the cost of the plans a state charge. 

The enforcement of the law, on the other hand, was 
not easy. A circular of the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions issued on June 23, 1921, called the attention 
of the prefects to the "inadmissible slowness" with 
which the preparation of plans for the reconstruction 
of devastated towns was proceeding, and to the neces- 
sity of radical changes of method if the work was to be 
completed by March 14, 1922, the limit of time set by 
the law. One reason for the delay, apparently, was 
fear of the possible expense involved. The com- 
munes, as has been said, had been given the right to 
condemn private property for public purposes, and the 
owner was of course entitled to compensation for such 
portion of his property, whether land or buildings, as 



272 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

was taken. How much of the property so acquired, 
however, would be paid for by the state, especially if 
changes of a large sort were made, and how much 
would have to be paid for by the municipality was not 
clear. The circular of June 23, while urging haste, 
gave notice that changes in street lines were to be 
reduced to a minimum, and that the expense of any 
modifications not strictly necessary would have to be 
borne by the municipalities and would not be met by 
state subventions. A law of July 29, intended to 
facilitate the acquisition of buildings by the com- 
munes, held out the prospect of some financial relief, 
but it came late. 

Thanks to the initiative of societies and corpora- 
tions, however, some notable progress was made. The 
Renaissance des Cites aided more than two hundred 
towns to prepare their plans, at the same time carry- 
ing on an extensive educational campaign. Plans 
were made for rebuilding as a model the village of 
Pinon, in the Aisne, which had been completely de- 
stroyed. The most important single achievement was 
the adoption by the city of Reims of a comprehensive 
plan prepared under the direction of Mr. George B. 
Ford of New York, to whom the town planning move- 
ment in France is deeply indebted.^ Plans of similar 
comprehensiveness have been accepted for Lille and 
La Bassee, and a plan for Soissons has been approved 
by the municipal council. The municipal council of 
Longwy, following the suggestion of the commission on 
town planning, has decided to rebuild the upper town 

* Mr. Ford has recounted some of his experiences in an entertaining 
article in the Survey (New York) for May 7, 1921. 



COMMUNITY INTERESTS 273 

on the original lines, thus preserving the historical 
ramparts constructed by Vauban. 

Some of the most interesting fruits of town plan- 
ning, however, are to be found in the workingmen's 
quarters built by industrial corporations and railway 
companies. While certain of these quarters (cites) 
reproduce the long rows of houses of a uniform type 
familiar in American and English industrial towns, 
others, as in the coal-mining concession of Anzin, are 
charming examples of architecture and arrangement. 
The new employees' quarter of the Nord railway com- 
pany at Lille has already been mentioned. The cite of 
the same company at Roye, entered through a broad 
avenue bordered with lawns and flowers, is laid out in 
a series of semicircular streets at the center of which 
is a large open space with a school, an assembly hall, 
and a covered market. Some twenty-five cites of the 
same modern character and with varied types of do- 
mestic architecture have already been built by the 
Nord company. 

While it seems improbable that any large changes 
will be made in most of the more than three thousand 
communes upon which the calamity of war fell, the 
results of the agitation for new and better towns will 
nevertheless be considerable. The reconstructed towns 
of devastated France will certainly show better streets, 
better schools and public buildings, more generous 
provision of markets and open spaces, and better facili- 
ties for public meetings, social gatherings, and recrea- 
tion than the former towns possessed. There will be 
better water supply, more general use of electric light, 
and better drainage. Once the marks of war have 



274 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

disappeared and economic life has resumed its normal 
course, it is a safe prediction that few of the communi- 
ties which are being restored will be less attractive to 
the eye, as most of them will be more healthful and 
convenient, than those which the war destroyed. The 
architectural and historical monuments which were the 
pride of the north cannot be replaced, and many 
touches of quaintness and beauty have gone forever, 
but in every other respect the reconstructed towns and 
villages will be better places to live in than were those 
which the war overwhelmed. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE CONTEIBUTION OF PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 

From the beginning of the war the devastation of 
the invaded departments and the sufferings of their 
inhabitants evoked widespread sympathy both in 
France and abroad, and led to more or less systematic 
attempts to supplement by private contributions and 
personal service the aid extended by the government. 
In spite of the supreme demands which the war made 
upon the people of France, numerous organizations 
were formed at Paris and elsewhere for the relief of 
refugees, the care of children, and the supply of food, 
clothing, and medical attendance to the needy popu- 
lation still remaining in the war zone. To the efforts 
of the French societies were presently added those of 
organizations in other countries, principally in Eng- 
land and the United States, the larger volume of con- 
tributions coming naturally from the American and 
British Red Cross. Many individuals, also, gave lib- 
erally of their time and their money for the relief of 
distress in particular communities. From the nature 
of the case, however, very little of this philanthropic 
effort had to do with actual reconstruction, and at the 
close of the war most of the French and foreign soci- 
eties either went out of existence or merged their work 
with that of societies which undertook to supplement 
directly the reconstruction efforts of the government. 

275 



276 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

War conditions, joined to the multiplication of soci- 
eties engaged in various kinds of relief, early made 
necessary some measure of government regulation. In 
August, 1917, a special committee was formed under 
the direction of the interministerial committee on re- 
construction for the coordination of public and private 
relief of all kinds. In November a national office was 
instituted for the same purpose. With the cooperation 
of the Ministry of War the status of the different soci- 
eties and their fields of operation were in a general 
way determined, uniforms or insignia for members or 
representatives working in the war zone were pre- 
scribed or approved, the transport and distribution of 
supplies were regulated, and permission was accorded 
to solicit funds by public appeal. With the exception 
of the Red Cross, which stood upon a different foot- 
ing, government supervision was in general extended 
over all organized relief agencies whether French or 
foreign. 

Of the French societies which have continued their 
activities since the war for the purpose of aiding in re- 
construction, one of the most important, in addition to 
La Renaissance des Cites already referred to, is Le 
Foyer des Campagnes. This society, formed in 1918 at 
Paris and carried on mainly by women, has for its object 
the social, hygienic, and artistic education of country 
districts and rural communities. By means of lectures, 
pamphlets, and public discussion it has sought to 
interest the state and the local governments in the 
establishment of community centers, and to train 
directors for this useful form of community service. 
Hampered from the beginning by lack of funds, it has 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 277 

nevertheless succeeded by the aid of state grants and 
private contributions in establishing foyers, or com- 
munity houses, at Essomes in the Aisne, Ville-en- 
Tardenois in the Marne, Ressons-sur-Matz and Las- 
signy in the Oise, and Juniville in the Ardennes, and 
will shortly open a sixth foyer at Tricot in the Oise 
and a seventh at Dun-sur-Meuse in the Meuse. There 
are also affiliated foyers at Carignan in the Ardennes 
and Frestoy-Vaux in the Oise, in whose direction the 
society shares. 

Each foyer provides a large hall for concerts, public 
meetings, or plays, a restaurant and billiard room, a 
library, and ample playgrounds. At Ressons and Juni- 
ville shower baths have been installed. Plays, con- 
certs, lectures, and fetes are given from time to time, 
there are classes in domestic economy for girls, and in 
some cases medical clinics are held. Wherever the 
foyers have been established they have become centers 
for social gatherings and sources of enrichment for the 
community life. The cost of installing a foyer is about 
40,000 francs, to which is to be added from 35,000 to 
40,000 francs for a demountable frame building where 
one is purchased, or 100,000 francs if the building is of 
brick. 

The movement for the creation of community cen- 
ters {maisons communes) had from the beginning the 
hearty support of the Ministry of the Liberated Re- 
gions. In April and July, 1919, circulars to the prefects 
urged the extension of all possible aid to such under- 
takings. It is through the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions that government grants in aid of the Foyer des 
Campagnes are made. 



278 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The Societe des Foyers of the Union Franco- Ameri- 
caine, although principally concerned with the army 
and navy, has established foyers for civilians at Lille, 
Laon, Nancy, and other centers and conducted a num- 
ber of summer camps for children. Until 1921 the so- 
ciety received considerable aid from America, but its 
funds are now derived almost wholly from French 
sources. In 1921 it expended over 870,000 francs for 
all purposes. 

Another French society, the Retour au Foyer, organ- 
ized in 1917, has since its establishment provided com- 
plete furnishings for 1,200 homes and distributed more 
than 15,000 articles of clothing, 18,000 fruit trees, and 
17,000 calves; given eighteen milch cows to nursing 
centers in mining districts ; opened two schools for lace 
making, and assumed, in connection with a subcommit- 
tee in The Netherlands, the cost of rebuilding the com- 
mune of Eparges. 

No data are available upon which to base even an 
approximate estimate of the financial aid given by 
French societies and individuals to the devastated 
departments, but the total amount is undoubtedly 
very large. On the other hand, it was not to be ex- 
pected that philanthropic aid would attain in France 
any such dimensions as would be possible in either 
England or the United States, partly because the 
heavy war losses left no class of society untouched, and 
partly because the government program of recon- 
struction has been so considerable and comprehensive. 
Individual and local contributions to the work of 
restoration, accordingly, have in France a significance 
far exceeding the money value involved. Some of th^ 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 279 

more interesting examples are particularly worth 
recording. 

In October, 1921, the village of Clery-sur-Somme, 
near Peronne, which had been totally destroyed in 
1916, celebrated its restoration. Thanks to the gen- 
erosity and energy of M. Maurice Fenaille, a member 
of the Institute of France and of the Council of Na- 
tional Museums, eighty workingmen's houses have 
been built, two farms entirely rehabilitated, a group 
of public buildings comprising a mairie, school, and 
post office erected, and a water system introduced. 
The entire cost of the public buildings and of the 
houses of the poorer sinistres was borne by M. Fenaille, 
the indemnities for war damages being left for the 
benefit of the sinistres whenever the indemnities 
should be paid. 

Reference has more than once been made to the pur- 
pose expressed by the government early in the war of 
calling upon the other departments for aid in relieving 
the departments that had been invaded. It does not 
appear that any such official appeal has ever, since the 
government declaration, been seriously considered. 
What was contemplated in 1914, however, has been 
done with impressive success in another way. In 1920 
the Union of French Associations for National Prog- 
ress, the president of which is M. Raymond Poincare, 
former President of the Republic, launched a nation- 
wide movement for the adoption of devastated com- 
munes. In November, 1921, M. Poincare was able to 
report that 74 departments, or groups of communes in 
these departments, had already adopted 1,852 dev- 
astated villages, and that 23,000,000 francs had beea 



280 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

subscribed for the purpose by departments, municipal- 
ities, or individuals.^ Fifty-five departments had 
adopted the full quota of communes assigned to them, 
and eight had adopted more than half of their quota. 
Of 2,209 devastated communes which had asked for 
aid, all but 357 had received it. These gratifying 
results were the fruit of an active campaign carried on 
throughout France not merely for the relief of commu- 
nities in distress, but also for the rebuilding of towns 
and villages in accordance with plans in which com- 
munity centers, dispensaries, maternity hospitals, and 
water supply should find place. 

In November the city council of Rouen, after listen- 
ing to an address by the mayor of Reims on the urgent 
need of funds for rebuilding in that city, voted 59,000 
francs for the construction of four workingmen's 
houses. A few days later a syndicate of employees of 
brokerage houses at Paris adopted the village of 
Ablain-St. Nazaire in the Pas-de-Calais, and forwarded 
to the mayor a first contribution of 1,000 francs. 
The commune of Sancy, on the Chemin des Dames, 
was adopted by the railway employees, the first 
building to be erected being a combined school and 
mairie with living quarters for the school-teacher. 
Thanks to the efforts of the French Colonial Institute, 
which has itself adopted a commune in the Mame, a 
contribution of 675,000 francs was voted for 1922 by 

* It is interesting to note that the Rhone department, in which 
Lyons is situated, had adopted 42 communes and contributed 
2,473,000 francs, while the department of the Seine, which includes 
Paris, had contributed only 1,250,000 francs. The contribution of the 
Seine was shortly raised, however, to 1,750,000 francs, the additional 
amount to be used for the communes of the Meuse, Meurthe-et- 
Moselle, the Moselle, and the Haut-Rhin. The number of com- 
munes which the Seine had been asked to adopt was 271. 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 281 

the government of French North Africa. In Decem- 
ber the city council of Le Havre voted an additional tax 
for 1922, the estimated return from which was 38,000 
francs, for the benefit of Reims. 

A number of foreign countries have contributed, 
directly or indirectly, to the restoration of the invaded 
area. In June, 1921, the government of Norway trans- 
mitted 200,000 francs, mainly given in small sums by 
working people, for the restoration of the Reims cathe- 
dral. In November a community house at Doulieu, in 
the Nord department, built by the Peruvian govern- 
ment at a cost of 100,000 francs, was formally opened. 
A contribution of 40,000 francs in aid of a children's 
hospital at Villers-Franqueux in the Marne was made 
in 1921 by a Danish society through the Minister of 
Justice at Copenhagen. A group of workingmen's 
houses at Lens testifies to the interest and sympathy of 
friends in Holland who not only gave the houses but 
also sent mechanics to put them up. The proceeds of 
an exhibition of paintings, organized at Paris by 
Czecho-Slovak artists, was handed to the Minister of 
the Liberated Regions in January, 1922. 

In Great Britain the movement for the adoption of 
devastated French communes, organized and directed 
by the British League of Help, has made remarkable 
progress. At the first annual meeting of the League, 
held at London on July 14, 1921, the adoption of 79 
towns or villages and contributions of 5,180,250 francs 
were reported. The city of Newcastle had sent £12,000 
sterling to the mayor of Arras, together with 150 pedi- 
gree pigeons to help replace the stock that had been 
killed or carried off. Kensington had sent £1,100 ster- 



282 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

ling in money and goods to Souchez, and was preparing 
to send £1,100 more. Preston had contributed £1,000 
sterling and £900 worth of goods to La Bassee, besides 
giving some twenty children of the town a holiday in 
England. Sheffield, which adopted Bapaume, had re- 
mitted 230,000 francs by the end of the year. In Sep- 
tember a delegation of 49 mayors of British cities 
visited the devastated departments and Paris. By 
January, 1922, the number of adoptions had reached 
nearly one hundred and the list was still growing. 

In the fall of 1914 the British Society of Friends, or 
Quakers, began general relief work and the construc- 
tion of temporary buildings in the Marne and the 
Meuse, eventually extending their efforts to other de- 
partments. Permanent houses of brick were erected at 
Sermaize-les-Bains and Pargny, and a hospital was 
opened at Sermaize-les-Bains, a children's home at 
Bettancourt-la-Langue, and a maternity hospital at 
Chalons-sur-Marne. In addition to constructing hun- 
dreds of houses, barraques, and barns, the representa- 
tives of the society helped in the clearing of fields and 
the planting and harvesting of crops, and contributed 
large quantities of seed, tools, furniture, clothing, bed- 
ding, and the other supplies. Beginning with the 
summer of 1919 the work of the British Society of 
Friends was merged with that of the American Society, 
which had been working on similar lines, under the 
name of the Anglo-American Friends' Mission. The 
operations of the mission continued actively until 
1921; then, with the progress of government recon- 
struction, the representatives of the mission were grad- 
ually withdrawn. 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 283 

It was natural that a large volume of philanthropic 
aid should come from the United States, So much of 
the Arnerican effort as was concerned with the tem- 
porary relief of the civil population does not fall within 
the scope of this volume, and much of the temporary 
rebuilding that was done during the war was, unhap- 
pily, swept away in the successive German advances. 
Once the armistice had put an end to hostilities, how- 
ever, the way was open for work of a permanent char- 
acter; and while no such large organized effort as has 
been made in England and France for the adoption of 
communes is to be credited to the United States, the 
record of American achievement is nevertheless consid- 
erable and in one important instance has unique value. 

The earliest and best known example of a dev- 
astated commune rebuilt by American aid is Vitrimont, 
a small village in the department of Meurthe-et- 
Moselle, which was restored at the expense of Mrs. 
Crocker of San Francisco under the direction of Miss 
Daisy Polk, now the Comtesse de Buyer. The com- 
mune itself as well as the individual sinistres assigned 
their indemnity claims to Miss Polk, and the com- 
munal buildings as well as private properties were 
restored. The village of Hattan-Chatel, near St. 
Mihiel, has been adopted by Mr. William Skinner and 
his daughter of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and is in 
process of reconstruction. An association formed at 
Washington, D. C, has undertaken to rebuild the vil- 
lage of Belleau as a memorial to the American soldiers 
who fell in the fighting at Belleau Wood. A number 
of other communes have from time to time been 
adopted by American cities or local committees. 



284 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Among important gifts to devastated communes are 
to be noted the presentation of a water supply and 
memorial fountain to Tilloloy in the Somme, given by 
the Daughters of the American Revolution and in- 
stalled under the direction of the Baroness de la 
Grange; funds in aid of village water supplies in vari- 
ous localities, given by Mr. William Nelson Cromwell 
of New York; a water system for Coucy-le-Chateau, 
the gift of Mrs. Whitney Warren ; a water supply and 
community house at Apremont-la-Foret, in the Meuse, 
provided by the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and 
by Miss Skinner of that city; a group of school build- 
ings at Chassemy, in the Aisne, a contribution by the 
French Restoration Fund through a French society 
known as L'Ecole pour I'Ecole; a gift of 3,000,000 
francs contributed by American educational institu- 
tions for the restoration of the library at Reims; and 
school libraries, the gift of American school children, 
for St. Mihiel, Sivry, Etain, Stenay, Fresnes, and Neuf- 
Brisac. 

An open-air vacation camp at Lille, established in 
1919 for the benefit of children who for various reasons 
could not enjoy the advantages of the government 
camp at Camiers, owed its inception to an American 
woman, Mrs. Burr. A gift of Holstein-Frisian bulls, 
presented to the French government in 1921 by a 
group of American stock breeders, was divided among 
the several departments in geographical order begin- 
ning with the Nord and the Pas-de-Calais. A legacy of 
$2,000,000 under the will of Frank H. Buhl of Grove 
City, Pennsylvania, for the benefit of the people of the 
devastated parts of France and Belgium, was an- 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 285 

nounced in June, 1921. A set of steel molding forms 
for use in the erection of a special type of concrete 
house in which the abundant debris of the invaded 
regions can be utilized, was presented to the govern- 
ment by M. R. J. Caldwell of New York, chairman of 
the French Restoration Fund. A group of fifty Ameri- 
can students of architecture, representing twelve edu- 
cational institutions, spent the summer of 1921 in work 
at Soissons, Evergnicourt (Aisne), Verdun, and Reims 
under the direction of the Ministry of the Liberated 
Regions. 

Of the numerous American organizations which at 
various times have contributed to the reconstruction of 
the invaded departments, the greatest interest and in 
some respects the greatest importance attach to the 
American Committee for Devastated France. The 
work of this society is particularly instructive not only 
because of the energy with which the society has been 
administered and the wide support which it has re- 
ceived in the United States and in France, but also 
because of the success with which it has applied in a 
comparatively small area some of the American meth- 
ods of social settlement work with which rural France 
was previously not familiar. 

The American Committee for Devastated France 
(known in France as the Comite Americain pour les 
Regions Devastees), incorporated in 1917 under the 
laws of the State of New York, is the successor of the. 
Civilian Committee of the American Fund for French 
Wounded, formed in 1916 to aid the civil population 
of the invaded regions. Working from the first under 
the official patronage»of the French government, it was 



286 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

assigned by the military authorities to the department 
of the Aisne, with headquarters at Blerancourt. Its 
first field of work comprised the cantons of Chauny, 
Coucy-le-Chateau, and Vic-sur- Aisne ; in January, 
1918, the Soissons canton was added. Taken together 
these four cantons constitute perhaps the most thor- 
oughly devastated portion not only of the Aisne de- 
partment but of the entire invaded area. No region 
more likely to test the spirit and devotion of the 
women who mainly composed the Committee could 
have been selected in the whole war zone, nor one 
more certain to present difiicult problems of recon- 
struction once the conclusion of peace should make 
reconstruction possible. 

Until the beginning of the German offensive of 
March, 1918, the representatives of the Committee 
devoted themselves chiefly to preparing card lists of 
families that had returned, providing furniture and 
necessary supplies for the temporary houses erected by 
the government, aiding the restoration of agriculture, 
establishing domestic science classes, and caring for 
the children. When in the spring and summer of 1918 
the German advance again drove out the civil popula- 
tion, the Committee helped the evacuation, operated 
relief stations, kept in touch with refugees in other 
parts of France, opened a supply depot at Paris, and 
continued its oversight of children. In August a chil- 
dren's colony at Boullay-Thierry, in the interior, was 
added to one already established at Beaumont-le- 
Roger. An arrangement was also made with the Amer- 
ican Women's Hospital organization for the main- 
tenance of a hospital in close relations with the Com- 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 287 

mittee, the hospital itself, after a period of migration, 
being eventually located at Blerancourt. 

Following the armistice the permanent work of re- 
construction was begun. With Blerancourt, Vic-sur- 
Aisne, Coucy-le-Chateau, Anizy, Soissons, and Laon as 
centers, the Committee undertook the restoration of 
normal conditions in some 77 devastated communes, 
partly by providing temporary relief or granting as- 
sistance where either was necessary, but chiefly by 
helping the people to help themselves. Thirty-two 
agricultural syndicates, 26 in the canton of Coucy and 
8 in the canton of Anizy, have been formed, and 
300,000 francs advanced for the purchase of grain. 
Forty tractors have worked over 9,000 hectares of land 
in these two cantons. An abandoned farm at Ville- 
neuve-la-Huree has been brought under cultivation, 
the products going to the syndicates. Seed, fruit trees, 
poultry, farm animals, tools, and fertilizer have been 
provided by gift or money advances, and in some cases 
the Committee camions, of which thirty large and 
small are in service, aided in carrying crops to market. 
For a time clothing, bedding, and house furnishings 
were sold at low prices or below cost, and traveling 
stores distributed food supplies which could not other- 
wise be obtained. Once the farmers and villagers had 
become reestablished, however, and local merchants 
had returned, the free distribution of supplies or their 
sale at less than market price ceased, and at the pres- 
ent time practically all purely relief work of this char- 
acter has been discontinued. 

The problem of rebuilding was perforce mainly left 
to the sinistres themselves, the procedure under the 



288 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

law of war damages taking its normal course. Impor- 
tant help was extended, however. The difficulty long 
occasioned by the inability of sinistres to pledge their 
indemnity claims as security for loans was bridged by 
loans to cooperative reconstruction societies, thus 
enabling the societies to anticipate government pay- 
ments or to pay for work already done. A well- 
equipped workshop and sawmill at Blerancourt has 
turned out doors, windows, and other material for 
houses, and a quarry is operated, the products of both 
of these establishments being placed at the service of 
the societies. In addition the Committee itself under- 
took contracts for building or repairing, and with the 
aid of local workmen has already erected 5 storehouses, 
2 schools, and 60 houses, and has repaired 2 churches 
and 73 houses. 

Besides helping the people to restore their homes 
and farms, the Committee has also devoted itself to 
caring for the health of the population, improving 
education, and enriching social life. In 1920 the hos- 
pital at Blerancourt, with twenty-five beds, was given 
to the Committee. It has been enlarged to forty-five 
beds and is now in charge of French doctors and 
nurses. Eight automobile ambulances are in service. 
A district nursing service is maintained with the col- 
laboration of 29 nurses assigned to the department 
of the Aisne, and a district nursing center has been 
opened at Reims which cares for 2,000 children. 
Baby clinics are held twice a week at nine centers, 
schools undergo sanitary inspection at least twice a 
year, the disinfection of houses in which contagious 
diseases have occurred has been taken over at Soissons, 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 289 

and layettes, linen, and condensed and fresh milk are 
distributed. In each canton needy sick persons are 
visited at their homes by a local physician at the 
charge of the Committee, persons in need of hospital 
treatment are taken to Blerancourt or other points, 
and convalescents are returned to their homes. A 
dental service is in operation at Blerancourt, and a 
dental inspection of school children is made twice a 
year. 

Sixteen foyers have been built by the Committee, 
and moving pictures, concerts, and sports are provided 
or arranged. Five public libraries and 23 traveling 
libraries have been opened, and distributions of books 
are regularly made to 11 foyers and 34 schools. Sev- 
eral hundred school desks have been manufactured at 
Blerancourt. Most of the bells of parish churches dis- 
appeared during the war; an Angelus fund, inspired by 
Mrs. Elizabeth Creevy Hamm and administered by 
the Committee, is replacing them. In 14 centers chil- 
dren are assembled once a week for gymnastics and 
manual training, and instruction in cutting and sewing 
is offered to women and girls. Thirty-five villages 
have domestic science classes for girls, and 27 villages 
have domestic science or kindergarten classes for chil- 
dren. A demonstration service illustrative of Ameri- 
can methods of preserving or canning food has already 
visited 20 departments, and a second service is 
planned. Numerous athletic clubs, including clubs 
for girls, have been formed, athletic fields have been 
provided at Soissons, Vic-sur-Aisne, Blerancourt, 
Anizy, and six other centers, and instruction in physi- 
cal education in the schools of Blerancourt, Anizy, and 



290 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Coucy-le-Chateau, and in parts of Soissons and Vic- 
sur-Aisne, has been taken over. 

The total disbursements of the Committee in France 
since 1917 have exceeded 18,000,000 francs. Its 
budget for 1921 called for the expenditure of more 
than $1,250,000. 

The possible future of the American Committee for 
Devastated France offers an interesting field for specu- 
lation. In the ordinary course of things the realization 
of the government program of reconstruction will 
before long make direct private assistance unneces- 
sary. Within a few years at the most the destroyed 
communes will have been rebuilt and the population 
will have become once more self-sustaining and inde- 
pendent. In the summer of 1921 the Committee 
closed its center at Laon. The establishment of a 
district nursing center at Reims, on the other hand, 
and the recent taking over of seven devastated com- 
munes in the region of the Chemin des Dames, suggest 
the possible further extension of the field of the Com- 
mittee either in the Aisne department or elsewhere in 
the liberated regions. Its assistance in developing and 
directing district nursing and child welfare work, 
neither of which has thus far received much scientific 
attention in France, and in aiding the movement for 
community centers, can ill be dispensed with for many 
years to come. The crucial difficulty, after all, is 
money rather than opportunity, for the field is wide 
and the need great. 

One of the lasting contributions of public and pri- 
vate philanthropy to the restoration of devastated 
France has been its encouragement of the cooperative 



PHILANTHROPY AND SYMPATHY 291 

spirit. However praiseworthy the qualities of sturdy 
independence, self-reliance, and thrift which French 
individualism has long helped to develop, individual- 
ism has nevertheless repeatedly clogged the wheels of 
reconstruction. Against this tendency such organiza- 
tions as the Anglo-American Friends' Mission, the 
Foyer des Campagnes, the American Committee for 
Devastated France, the British League of Help, and the 
Union of Associations for National Progress have set 
themselves, not by empty precept but by practical ex- 
ample. Every foyer opened, every cooperative society 
established or helped, every commune adopted or 
set once more upon its feet, has been a potent illus- 
tration of what can be accomplished when people work 
together. If the money and personal service which 
have been devoted to the rehabilitation of devastated 
towns and villages shall have served also to implant a 
new community spirit of cooperation, the cost will 
have been small indeed for the gain that will have been 
made. 



CHAPTER XVII 

CONCLUSIONS 

The devastated zone of France to-day may be 
likened in appearance to a great building which, long 
in process of construction, is at last nearing comple- 
tion. The foundations have been laid, the walls and 
partitions erected, and the roof is in place. The in- 
terior finishings have yet to be added, however, while 
about the outside are scattered the debris of excava- 
tion and construction and piles of miscellaneous mate- 
rial still to be used. To the architect, the contractor, 
and the workmen the undertaking is pursuing the ac- 
customed course save as incidental changes of plan, 
delays in obtaining material, or shortage of labor have 
now and then caused the work to stop. To the owner 
or future occupant, on the other hand, less interested 
in processes than in the earliest possible completion of 
the work, the progress has often, perhaps, seemed slow, 
while to the casual passer-by the scene may give only 
an impression of noise and unsightliness. 

It is to this first picture of disorder and incomplete- 
ness, the feeling of something overturned and wrenched 
that has not yet been righted and repaired, that much 
of the popular criticism of reconstruction is undoubt- 
edly due. In the presence of ruins the like of which 
have never been seen anywhere in the world, there is 

292 



CONCLUSIONS 293 

strong temptation to conclude that nothing important 
has been done. Unsightly barraques and shattered 
houses, piles of stone and brick and twisted metal, 
often overshadow in interest the thousands of buildings 
that have been restored, the hundreds of factories and 
mills that have been erected, and the millions of tons 
of debris that obviously must have been removed. A 
few hectares of uncultivated land, still strewn with 
barbed wire or scarred by unfilled trenches, may go 
far to blind the eye to the significance of the well-tilled 
farms extending on every hand ; while the discomforts 
of temporary railway stations and cinder platforms 
seem often to have obscured the solidly-built tracks, 
the regular service of trains, and the shipments of coal, 
ore, machinery, lumber, and other freight which the 
revival of industrial life in the invaded departments 
has produced. 

Yet it is as easy to overestimate as it is natural to 
underestimate what has been accomplished. The pri- 
mary task of clearing the ruins preparatory to re- 
building has not yet been completed; in more than 
one locality, indeed, it has hardly been begun. Many 
industrial establishments have not yet been restored, 
the mines have not yet attained their pre-war volume 
of production. The slow progress in the restoration of 
the sugar factories is a serious matter for many farm- 
ers as well as for the consuming public, and the small 
number of cattle means a lack of fertilizer which 
cannot be made good by the use of chemicals. Com- 
paratively little attention has as yet been given to the 
forests, and still less to public buildings, churches, and 
monuments. The neglect of permanent housing has 



294 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

not only created a housing crisis which is constantly- 
becoming more serious, but has also had the effect of 
giving to the liberated regions an appearance of pov- 
erty and incompleteness which the state of industry 
and agriculture belies. 

All about the former war zone, moreover, are areas 
that have been neglected. Most of these areas are 
small villages, but some comprise many hectares of 
what was once well-ordered forest, field, or pasture. 
Some large towns and cities still show little evidence 
of reconstruction in either their residential or their 
business quarters. Whatever the cause, whether the 
complete destruction of the village, doubt about the 
propriety of rebuilding, or delays caused by the slow- 
moving government machinery, every one of these 
neglected places is an eyesore and a plague spot, re- 
flecting by its dreariness and desolation upon the gov- 
ernment which has passed it by, and infecting with 
discouragement and discontent the population not yet 
fully reestablished. Now that the reconstitution of 
industry and agriculture is as a whole far advanced, 
the eradication of these nurseries of complaint and 
despair ought at once to be begun. 

Adverse criticism of the government, however, even 
where government effort has been least fruitful, may 
well be restrained. Wisdom after the event is pro- 
verbially easy, especially where problems are new and 
tasks many and complicated. To insist that the gov- 
ernment should have done this rather than that solves 
no present problem ; at best such criticism serves only 
to indicate work yet to be performed. The large lines 
of the reconstruction program have been drawn, the 



CONCLUSIONS 295 

foundations of economic restoration have been laid, 
and the building of the superstructure is far advanced. 
What remains to be done, great as it is, is far more a 
matter of details than of fundamentals. 

It should not be forgotten, moreover, that the 
achievements of reconstruction have been accom- 
plished under the stress of many national preoccupa- 
tions and in the face of much hostile criticism. The 
years which have intervened since the armistice and 
the peace have not been quiet years for France. An 
incessant fire of political attack, now from radicals and 
again from conservatives, has been directed against 
both the domestic and the foreign policy of the gov- 
ernment. The treaties made at the close of the war 
have given rise to delicate international situations in 
whose treatment France has played an important and 
at times a leading part. Within France itself there 
was much to reconstruct besides the invaded depart- 
ments. Pensions, railway reorganization, housing, and 
taxation are only a few of the matters to which gov- 
ernment and people have been forced to give earnest 
attention. It would have been easy to excuse the 
government if under all the circumstances reconstruc- 
tion had lagged; that it has progressed as it has, and 
that more than fifty milliards of francs have been 
found to support it, is an unparalleled national feat. 

What will the invaded departments be like once 
they shall have been completely restored? Will they 
exhibit, in all essential respects, the same economic 
and social characteristics which they had before the 
war, or will they have become a new region with new 
traits and new ideals? Will the war have been to 



296 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

them only a huge calamity whose losses have never- 
theless been made good, or will something vital have 
been lost that cannot be replaced? 

Certain economic changes of importance seem 
already clearly to be forecast. The course of recon- 
struction is already tending to make the liberated 
departments more an industrial region and less an 
agricultural one than before the war. The construc- 
tion of larger and more modern factories and mills, 
the extended use of electrical power furnished by great 
generating and transmission systems, the improvement 
of railways and waterways, and the provision of whole 
villages of attractive and well-built houses for em- 
ployees, all point to si future expansion of industry far 
beyond what had been attained in 1914. Plans are 
already under way for the more intensive working of 
coal and iron deposits, and the establishment of new 
industries in the coal-mining districts is going on. 
Small corporations are being merged in larger ones, 
and capital issues are increasing. The area devoted to 
agriculture, on the other hand, tends to decUne as 
manufacturing industry expands, and with a prac- 
tically stationary population the number of agricul- 
tural laborers falls as the number of industrial workers 
rises. The failure of the sugar factories thus far to 
rebuild^ the precarious state of the wine industry, and 
the deficient supply of cattle are important agricul- 
tural losses for which no offset has yet been found. 
Increased use of tractors or electrical power for farm 
work will doubtless make good to some extent the loss 
to the farms of labor drawn into the manufacturing 
centers, and the merging of small farms in larger ones 



CONCLUSIONS 297 

will make easier the use of mechanical power, but 
there is little reason to think that even with these 
advantages agriculture will long hold its own. 

To the eye, accordingly, the face of the invaded 
departments will be materially changed as reconstruc- 
tion proceeds. There will be more factories and mills 
and fewer small farms. The rebuilt houses will long 
have a new look even when built on ancient lines, and 
town planning will change the appearance of more 
than one town whose arrangement before the war was 
more picturesque than convenient. There will be evi- 
dences of sanitation which many of the older commu- 
nities lacked, better provision for open-air recreation 
in the industrial communities, and enlarged suburban 
districts connecting the country and the town. 

No signs are yet apparent, however, of any funda- 
mental changes in the habits or temper of the people 
that are not already taking place in other parts of 
France. The indelible mark which France imprints 
upon its children has not been removed by either war 
or reconstruction. The same strong sense of nation- 
ality, the same attachment to country and to place, 
the same industry and thrift, the same mixture of 
deference and contempt in the face of authority, and 
the same consciousness of a great history which has 
made France strong, characterize the people of the 
half-built towns and country districts of the north and 
east and those of the untouched communities of the 
west, the Midi, and the south. The war swept away 
vast quantities of material things which generations 
had accumulated, and reconstruction in restoring 
them is rearranging the balance of social classes and 



298 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

spreading a new spirit of cooperation, but in other 
respects the temper of the people remains essentially 
untouched. The greatest danger at the moment is that 
the prolongation of reconstruction over many years 
may cause the people of the invaded regions to be 
regarded, what at present they are not, as a class 
apart. If that calamity can be avoided, the liberated 
regions will have only a more vivid memory of war 
and a more grateful sense of obligation to distinguish 
them from the rest of France. 



APPENDIX A 

Town Planning Law * 
March 14, 1919 

Article 1. Every city of ten thousand inhabitants or over 
is required, without prejudice to the general plan of lines and 
levels imposed upon all communes by Article 136, paragraph 
13, of the law of April 5, 1884, to have a plan of arrangement, 
improvement, and extension. 

This plan, which is to be drawn up within not to exceed 
three years from the promulgation of the present law, shall 
include : 

1. A plan fixing the direction, the width, and the character 
of the ways to be laid out or modified, determining the loca- 
tion, the extent, and the arrangement of the places, squares, 
public gardens, playgrounds, parks, and other open spaces, 
and indicating the reserved areas, whether wooded or not, 
to be established, as well as the sites destined for monuments 
or public buildings or services. 

2. A program determining the hygienic, archaeological, and 
{esthetic restrictions, as well as all other conditions relating 
thereto, and in particular the open spaces to be reserved, the 
height of buildings, as well as the provisions regarding the 
distribution of drinking water, the system of drains, the re- 
moval and final disposition of waste and, if required, the 
drainage of the soil. 

3. A form of order to be issued by the mayor, with the 
advice of the municipal council, regulating the conditions 
under which the measures prescribed in the plan and the 
program are to be applied. 

The same duties are imposed: 

^Bulletin des Lois, Nouvelle Serie, No. 245, pp. 558-563. 

299 



300 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

1. Upon all the communes of the department of the Seine. 

2. Upon places of less than ten thousand and more than 
five thousand inhabitants the population of which has increased 
more than ten per cent, in the interval between two consecu- 
tive quinquennial censuses. 

3. Upon bathing resorts, seaside resorts, watering places, 
health resorts, pleasure resorts, and other resorts the popula- 
tion of which, whatever its size, increases fifty per cent, or 
more at certain periods of the year. 

4. Upon localities, whatever their size, having a pictur- 
esque, artistic, or historical character, included in the list re- 
quired to be drawn up by the departmental commissions of 
natural sites and monuments established by the law of April 
21, 1906. 

5. Upon groups of dwelling houses and localities built or 
developed by associations, companies, or individuals. 

Article 2. When any locality, whatever the number of 
its population, has been wholly or partially destroyed by rea- 
son of war, fire, earthquake, or any other calamity, the munici- 
pality is required to have drawn up within three months the 
general plan of lines and levels for the parts to be recon- 
structed, as provided by the law of April 5, 1884, together with 
a summary sketch of the plan of arrangement, improvement, 
and extension contemplated by Article 1 of the present law. 

An order of the prefect, issued with the advice of the com- 
mission constituted by Article 4 of the present law, shall decide 
whether the locality comes within the scope of the conditions 
set forth in the preceding paragraph, and shall fix the be- 
ginning of the period of three months. 

Until the plan of lines and levels has been approved, no 
buildings except provisional shelters shall be erected without 
the authorization of the prefect, given with the advice of the 
commission constituted by Article 4 following. 

Article 3. The expense of the plans and proposals pro- 
vided for by the preceding articles is at the cost of the state 
so far as the communes covered by Article 2 preceding are 
concerned, notwithstanding the principle laid down by Article 
136, paragraph 13, of the municipal law of April 5, 1884. 

The same provision applies to the localities covered by para- 
graph 4 of the enumeration contained in Article 1 of the 
present law. 



APPENDIX A 301 

In the case of other communes, subventions may be granted 
by decision of the Minister of the Interior, rendered on the 
application of the prefect of the department, upon the credits 
entered under this head in the budget of the Ministry of the 
Interior, and in a proportion which shall be determined by a 
decree issued in the form prescribed by the rules of public 
administration. 

Article 4. There is constituted at the prefecture of each 
department, under the presidency of the prefect or of his 
representative, a commission known as the "Departmental 
Commission for the planning and extension of Cities and Vil- 
lages," composed of the departmental council of hygiene, the 
departmental commission of natural sites and monuments, 
the departmental council of civil buildings, and four mayors 
designated by the general council. 

This commission shall give hearings to the delegates of 
societies of architecture, art, archaeology, history, agriculture, 
commerce, industry, and sport, and of transport companies 
in the department, as well as to the mayors of the cities or 
communes interested, and the representatives of the various 
public services of the state, whom it thinks ought to be con- 
voked or who request an opportunity to present their views. 

It may add to its number rapporteurs'' who shall have a 
deliberate voice in matters intrusted to them. 

This commission shall bring together all the documents 
necessary to facilitate the work of the communes in prepar- 
ing their plans and to guide them [in that work]. 

It shall give its advice: 

1. With respect to the plans drawn up by the municipalities. 

2. With respect to the departures which, because of special 
difficulties or local needs, it may be necessary to make from 
the principles laid down by the superior commission constituted 
under Article 5 following. 

3. With respect to the aesthetic or hygienic easements (servt- 
tudes) resulting from the plans submitted to it. 

4. With respect to all matters which the prefect deems it 
useful to submit to it. 

Article 5. There is established within the Ministry of the 

* There is no English equivalent for rapporteur. In this connection 
it apparently means an expert, or a person with special knowledge 
of a particular subject. 



302 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Interior, under the presidency of the minister or his delegate 
and the vice-presidency of the Minister of the Liberated Re- 
gions or his delegate, a superior commission for the arrange- 
ment, improvement, and extension of cities, made up as 
follows : 

Two senators elected by the Senate. 

Two deputies elected by the Chamber of Deputies. 

Two councillors of state in ordinary service designated by 
their colleagues. 

Four mayors, of whom three shall be designated by the 
Minister of the Interior and one by the Minister of the Lib- 
erated Regions, two to be from communes of from twenty 
thousand to fifty thousand inhabitants and two from communes 
of more than fifty thousand inhabitants. 

The director of departmental and communal administration 
in the Ministry of the Interior. 

The director of public relief and hygiene in the Ministry 
of the Interior. 

Four members of the superior council of public hygiene 
designated by their colleagues. 

Four members of the superior council of fine arts desig- 
nated by their colleagues. 

Four members of the general council of civil buildings 
designated by their colleagues. 

Four members chosen from persons interested in town plan- 
ning (urhanistes) , architects, and other persons particularly 
qualified, two to be designated by the Minister of the Liberated 
Regions and two by the Minister of the Interior. 

It may add to its number rapporteurs who shall have a 
deliberative voice in matters intrusted to them. 

This commission is charged with drawing up general rules 
for the guidance of the municipalities in the application of the 
present law, and shall give its advice concerning all questions 
and all plans referred to it by the Minister of the Interior 
or the Minister of the Liberated Regions either of their own 
motion or, upon the request of the commission itseK, by a 
statement setting forth the reason for the request. 

Article 6. If the plan concerns only a single commune, 
and except in the case provided for in the fifth paragraph of 
Article 1 (governed by Article 8 following in regard to groups 
of dwellings), the municipal council at the instance of the 



APPENDIX A 303 

mayor shall designate the artist or the society to whom the 
sketch and the preparation of the plans and proposals shall 
be intrusted. 

If within two months from the promulgation of the present 
law such designation has not been made, the prefect shall 
notify the municipal council [make such designation] within 
one month, failing which he shall himself of his own motion 
make the necessary designation. 

If the plan has not been drawn up within the time provided 
for in articles 1 and 2 above, the prefect shall proceed of his 
own motion [to fulfill the requirement] at the expense of the 
commune, and the commune shall forfeit its right to the sub- 
ventions provided for by Article 3, paragraph 3, of the present 
law. 

Article 7. When the plan, program, and order provided 
for by Article 1 have been drawn up they shall be submitted, 
with the approval of the bureau of hygiene and, in default 
thereof, of the sanitary commission of the district: 

1. To examination by the municipal coimcil. 

2. To an inquiry under the provisions of the ordinance of 
August 23, 1835; and 

3. To examination by the commission provided for by 
Article 4. 

The municipal council is then required to give its definitive 
opinion. 

If the municipal council refuses or neglects to examine 
the plan, the prefect shall notify it to act within one month, 
failing which he shall himself examine the plan. 

The same procedure shall be followed in case the municipal 
council refuses or neglects to give a definitive opinion. 

The prefect shall transmit the papers, together with his 
opinion and a statement of his reasons therefor, to the 
Minister of the Interior who shall consult, if he thinks best, 
the superior commission, and the work required to be done 
in carrying out the plan shall be declared to be of public utility 
by decree of the Council of State. 

In all cases in which a locality such as is contemplated by 
Article 2 of the present law is concerned, the declaration of 
public utility shall be made by order of the prefect, with the 
approval of the commission constituted by Article 4, except 
in so far as concerns the localities enumerated in Article 1, 



304 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

for which a decree of the Council of State shall always be 
necessary. 

Article 8, Associations, companies, or individuals who shall 
undertake the erection or development of groups of dwellings 
are required to deposit at the office of the mayor a plan or ar- 
rangement showing the connection with the public ways and, 
if necessary, with the conduits for drinking water and the 
sewers of the commune. 

Within twenty days following such deposit the plan shall be 
submitted to examination by the bureau of hygiene or, in 
default thereof, to the sanitary commission of the district, 
to the municipal council, then to an inquiry in the form pre- 
scribed by the circular of the Minister of the Interior of 
August 20, 1825. 

In case a notice duly attested, addressed by a proprietor to 
the mayor, is not acted upon within one month, the prefect 
may order the inquiry. 

The plan shall then be submitted to the commission provided 
for in Article 4 above, and approved, if necessary, by an order 
of the prefect. 

The decision of the prefect is to be made within the month 
following the inquiry. Failing a decision within that time, 
the plan shall be deemed to have been approved. 

When the plan shall have been approved, no building shall 
be erected without the delivery by the mayor of a building 
permit in accordance with the provisions of Article 11 of 
the law of February 15, 1902. 

Article 9. When the plan of reconstruction, arrangement, 
improvement, and extension concerns several communes of 
the department, the prefect may call for a sketch of the plan 
as a whole on the part of the municipalities interested, and 
may establish, of his own motion, intercommunal conferences 
with a view to the constitution of communal syndicates, in 
conformity with the requirements of articles 116 and 169 of 
the law of April 5, 1884. 

The plan is to be acted upon and declared of public utility 
according to the forms indicated in articles 6 and 7 of the 
present law. 

If the plan goes beyond the boundaries of the department, 
it shall be reviewed in an interdepartmental conference accord- 
ing to the provisions of articles 89, 90, and 91 of the law 



APPENDIX A 305 

of August 10, 18Y1, and shall then be subject, in each commune, 
to the procedure contemplated by articles 6 and 7 of the 
present law. 

It shall be declared a work of public utility by a law which 
shall determine the measures necessary for its application. 

Article 10. From the date of the publication of the act de- 
claring a plan of reconstruction, arrangement, improvement, 
and extension a work of public utility, or of the order of the 
prefect approving the plans with respect to groups of dwellings 
provided for by Article 8, the proprietors of land abutting 
upon proposed ways and spaces shall conform to the regula- 
tions prescribed by law regarding building lines, and shall 
not erect any new structures without having first obtained a 
building permit from the mayor. No new structures abutting 
upon proposed ways or spaces shall be erected except in ac- 
cordance with the building lines that have been fixed. 

To insure this, no structure whatever shall be erected with- 
out the delivery by the mayor of a building permit. 



■ APPENDIX B 

Law of War Damages * 

April 17, 1919 

Law regarding the reparation of damages caused hi/ the events 

of the war. 

TITLE I. GENERAL PROVISIONS 

Article 1, The Republic proclaims the equal and united 
obligation of the whole French people with respect to the dam- 
ages of the war. 

Article 2. Certain, material, and direct damages in France 
and Algiers to immovable or movable property, caused by the 
events of the war, shall give right to the complete reparation 
provided for by Article 12 of the law of December 26, 1914, 
without prejudice to the right of the French government to 
claim payment of the same from the enemy. 

The following shall be regarded as damages resulting from 
the events of the war, namely : 

1. All requisitions made by the enemy authorities or troops, 
levies in kind of any form or character, including those in the 
form of occupation, billeting, and cantonment, as well as taxes, 
war contributions, and penalties exacted from individuals and 
collectivities.* 

2. The removal of all objects such as crops, animals, trees 
and wood, raw materials, merchandise, furnishings, securities, 
and commercial paper; the deterioration or destruction, partial 
or total, of crops, merchandise, and all movable property, who- 

^ Bulletin des Lois, Nouvelle Serie, No. 248, pp. 1156-1182. 
* Collectivities includes all kinds of societies, business organizations, 
local governments, etc. There is no English equivalent. 

306 



APPENDIX B 307 

ever the authors of such removal, deterioration, or destruction 
may be; the loss of movable objects, whether in France or 
abroad, in the course of evacuations or repatriations. 

3. The deterioration of immovable property, whether or not 
in the fonn of buildings, including woods and forests ; the par- 
tial or total destruction of buildings ; the removal, deterioration, 
or destruction, partial or total, of implements, accessories, and 
animals appurtenant to commercial, industrial, or agricultural 
exploitation, which for the purpose of the present law shall be 
considered as immovable property by destination,^ whether they 
belong to the exploiter or to the owner of the property, without 
inquiry as to who were the authors of the damages referred to in 
this paragraph. 

4. All damages within the purview of the preceding para- 
graphs caused within the zone of frontier defense as well as in 
the neighborhood of military locations and fortified places, with- 
out imposing upon those who have rights under this provision 
any exception based upon laws and decrees concerning military 
rights ^ therein. In every case the conxmissions of evaluation, in 
fixing the amount of the indemnity, shall take account of the 
permissive character (caractere precaire) of structures erected 
in military zones in contravention of laws and regulations or by 
virtue of authorization subject to an undertaking to remove [the 
structures] upon request. 

5. All damages occasioned to small fishing boats. An ad- 
ministrative regulation shall determine the procedure to be 
followed in proving and evaluating the damage. 

Damages within the purview of the preceding paragraphs 
shall include those caused by the French or Allied armies, 
whether by reason of measures in preparation for attack, pre- 
ventive measures of defense, the necessities of battle and of the 
evacuation of threatened points, or by reason of the require- 
ments of occupation in those portions of territory which have 
been included in the zone of the armies, and, in particular, of 
requisitions, billeting, and cantonment; the right being re- 
served to the claimant to avail himself at his discretion of the 
provisions of the laws of July 10, 1791, and July 3, 1877, and 

* Many forms of movable property intended exclusively for use on 
or in connection with the land or with business operations are classed 
by French law as immovable property by destination. 

'The French term is servitudes. Rights of this nature are some- 
what analogous to easements in English law. 



308 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

of the decrees of August 2, 1877, November 23, 1886, and 
December 27, 1914. 

The damages shall be proved and evaluated and the indem- 
nity determined for each sinistre according to categories, fol- 
lowing the classification herein provided, in conformity with 
the provisions of the present law. The sinistre shall have the 
right to present at the same time his claims to the various cate- 
gories of damages which he has sustained. 

Article 3. Individuals and their heirs, associations, public 
enterprises or those of public utility, communes, and depart- 
ments shall be entitled to exercise the right herein defined. 

Corporations and partnerships (societes) a part of whose 
capital was withheld by citizens of the enemy powers after the 
first of August, 1914, shall be reimbursed by the state, by with- 
holding the dividends declared to holders of securities who are 
subject to the jurisdiction of the enemy powers, or by other 
[forms of] retention imposed upon such holders, the part of the 
indemnity which the capital so withheld would have produced. 

An administrative regulation shall determine the conditions 
under which the preceding paragraph is to be applied. 

The right to reparation shall attach to foreigners in France, 
and to naturalized persons from whom the right of French citi- 
zenship has been withdrawn, under conditions determined by 
treaties to be concluded between France and the nation under 
whose jurisdiction these foreigners or naturalized persons are 
or have been. For the purpose solely of preserving their rights, 
foreigners shall be allowed to prove the damages which they 
may have suffered and to have them evaluated. 

A special law will determine the conditions under which 
concessionaires of ways of communication of general interest 
shall be admitted to the benefit of the present law. 

TITLE II. INDEMNITY 

Article 4. The indemnity with respect to immovable prop- 
erty shall include the total amount of the loss sustained, evalu- 
ated on the eve of mobilization, and that of the supplementary 
expenses required for the reconstitution of the immovable prop- 
erty damaged or destroyed. 

The grant of these two elements of indenmity is subject to 
the condition of effectuating the reemployment [of the indem- 
nity] in accordance with the provisions of the articles following. 



APPENDrX B 309 

In case tte reemployment [of the indemnity] is not effectu- 
ated, the sinistre shall receive only the amount of the loss 
sustained. 

Article 5. The amount of the loss sustained and that of the 
supplementary expenses required for the reconstitution of im- 
movables shall be evaluated separately by the commissions 
constituted by articles 20 and following of the present law. 

In the case of buildings and of immovables by destination, 
the amount of the loss sustained shall be evaluated by taking as 
the basis the cost of construction, installation, or repair on the 
eve of mobilization, deduction being made of the amount repre- 
senting depreciation through age and, in the case of immovables 
rebuilt or repaired subsequent to mobilization, [the cost] at the 
time when they were repaired or rebuilt. 

[A paragraph relating to the evaluation of damages in the 
case of immovables that had changed owners, etc., was repealed 
by a law of August 25, 1920;] 

In the case of the immovable property referred to in the 
second paragraph of the present article, the supplementary 
expenses shall be equal to the difference between the cost of 
reconstruction, installation, or repair on the eve of mobilization 
and that of the restoration of the same kind of immovable prop- 
erty at the date of the evaluation. 

Subject to the condition of reemployment, the amount corre- 
sponding to the depreciation resulting from age shall be allowed 
to the claimant, on all kinds of property, to the aggregate of 
ten thousand francs, and, for the remainder, the amount may, at 
the request of the claimant, be made the basis of advances re- 
payable by him to the state in twenty-five years, beginning with 
the year following the final payment, with interest at three 
per cent. 

Subject to the same condition, the depreciation for age shall 
not exceed twenty per cent, of the cost of construction on the 
eve of mobilization in the case of property used solely for agri- 
cultural purposes. 

For the repayment of these advances the state shall have a 
lien which shall be included in the first class of the liens gov- 
erned by Article 2,103 of the Civil Code. 

The reemployment [of indemnities] may take the form of 
immovable property having the same destination as the prop- 
erties destroyed, or an immovable, industrial, commercial, or 
agricultural destination, in the commune where the damage 



310 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

occurred or within a radius of fifty kilometres, [but] not out- 
side of the devastated zone. In every case of expropriation or 
repurchase of land by the state, reemployment shall be effectu- 
ated, in the case of agriculture, within the limits of the dev- 
astated regions. 

Buildings shall be reconstructed in accordance with the pro- 
visions prescribed by laws and regulations regarding public 
hygiene. 

Within fifteen days following the promulgation of the present 
law an administration regulation, made with the approval of 
the superior council of hygiene, shall determine the rules to be 
applied in the reconstitution of immovable property and of 
groups of buildings. 

Reemployment shall be regarded as complete if the claimant 
has expended in the reconstruction of immovable property or in 
the restoration of an enterprise (exploitation) an amount equal 
to the total indemnity of all kinds accorded to him. 

If the reemployment is only partial, the claimant shall receive 
only the proportion of the supplementary expenses which corre- 
sponds to the amounts expended. 

In the case of immovable property other than buildings, the 
amount of the loss sustained shall be evaluated by taking 
account of the deterioration of the soil, of the deterioration or 
destruction of fences, of trees of all kinds, of vines, plantings, 
shrubs, and forest trees. Where exploitation is resumed the 
claimant shall be entitled, in addition [to other indemnity], to 
the amount of the supplementary expenses necessary for the 
restoration of the land to its former condition of use or pro- 
ductivity, the rebuilding of fences, the removal of stumps, new 
plantings, or reforestation. 

Claimants shall be entitled to pool their rights to indemnity 
or to put them into corporations or partnerships (apporter en 
societe) for the purpose of reconstructing immovable property 
or of resuming exploitation or [reconstituting] agricultural, 
commercial, or industrial establishments, under the conditions 
and within the limits set forth in the preceding paragraphs. 

In case rights are pooled or put into corporations or part- 
nerships, the rights shall be registered only at their pre-war 
valuation.* 

In the case of public service concessionaires, departments, 

*/.e., the shares or subscriptions, as officially registered or recorded, 
shall be on the basis of the pre-war valuation of the rights. 



APPENDIX B 311 

communes, [and] public enterprises or those of public utility, 
the indemnity shall not exceed the amount of the expenses of 
reconstruction of immovable propertj' intended for the same use 
as formerly (avec I'affectation anterieure). 

In the case of concessionaires of mines, the grant of the 
indemnities provided for by the present article shall be subject 
to the resumption of exploitation, unless the impossibility of 
such resumption is duly established, in vphich case the indem- 
nity shall be solely the amount of the loss sustained. 

Article 6. The restoration of a building or the resumption 
of exploitation may be forbidden by the tribunal of vi^ar dam- 
ages of its own motion if [such restoration or resumption] is 
deemed impracticable or contrary to economic interest or public 
health. 

Article 7. In case reemployment is not effectuated, the 
indemnity shall nevertheless be calculated by taking account of 
the amount of loss sustained and the supplementary expenses. 
The sinistre shall receive the amount of the loss sustained. 

The supplementary expenses of restoration shall be placed to 
the credit of a common fund, under conditions to be determined 
by the budget law, to be used for the benefit of the regions 
which have suffered. 

Article 8. If reemployment is not effectuated, the payment 
of the loss sustained shall be made by the delivery to the sin- 
istre of a bond (titre) representing the amount which is due to 
him and bearing interest at five per cent, per annum. 

These bonds shall be non-transferable for five years from the 
date of their delivery to the claimants; they may, however, be 
assigned during that period, under the authorization, accom- 
panied by a statement of the grounds thereof, of the civil 
tribunal sitting en banc, the ministry [concerned] being heard. 
An appeal may be taken from the decision of [the court of] 
first instance to a court which shall render a decision en banc 
in accordance with the procedure of summary jurisdiction. 

Every transfer made in violation of the foregoing provisions 
shall be void; a judgment of nullity shall be rendered at the 
request of the Minister of Finance. 

After the expiration of the period of five years the bond shall 
be redeemed by payment in cash in ten equal annual install- 
ments, the first payment to be made at the expiration of the 
sixth year and the remaining payments at the expiration of 
successive periods of twelve months. 



312 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Claimants who shall undertake to reemploy or reinvest their 
indemnity — under the conditions prescribed by articles 9, 44, 
and 45 of the present law — shall receive payments in cash in the 
ways provided for by the said articles. 

Article 9. The claimant shall have a period of two years 
from [the date of] the decision fixing definitively the indemnity 
in which to consent to the condition of reemployment. He shall 
be required to furnish in support of his agreement, in order to 
facilitate the calculation of the supplementary expenses, a plan 
of the work to be done or of the purchases to be made, with a 
detailed estimate of costs. 

[Article 10 relates to the payment of indemnity and the con- 
ditions of reemployment in the case of property held in joint 
ownership, property subject to liens or mortgages, etc.] 

Article 11. In case the claimant does not reemploy [the 
indemnity], the owners interested may form syndicates (associa- 
tions syndicales autorisees), under the forms and conditions 
prescribed by the laws of Jvme 21, 1865, and December 22, 1888, 
for the execution of work of collective utility. In case the 
commune is not one of the owners presumptively interested, the 
mayor shall nevertheless be entitled to take part in the meeting 
[of the syndicate], but only in an advisory capacity. 

Article 12. In the case of civil or church buildings the 
indemnity shall consist of the amounts necessary for the recon- 
struction of an edifice presenting the same character, having the 
same importance, the same purpose, and affording the same 
guarantees of permanence as the building destroyed. 

This importance and these guarantees shall be determined, at 
the request of the interested parties or of its own motion, by the 
special commission hereinafter provided. 

In case of dispute the determination shall be made by the 
tribunal of war damages. 

The Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, with the 
approval of the said commission, shall decide in regard to the 
preservation and consolidation of the ruins and, eventually, 
their restoration to their former condition, of monuments of 
historical or artistic national interest. Subventions for this 
purpose shall be carried in the chapter of the budget law of the 
Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts. 

If reconstruction on the site of the ruins is not authorized, 
the indemnity shall comprise the amounts necessary for the 
acquisition of new land. 



APPENDIX B 313 

The commission above referred to shall be composed of two 
senators elected by the Senate; three deputies elected by the 
Chamber; two members of the French Academy, two members 
of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, two members 
of the Academy of Fine Arts, appointed by their societies; a 
member of the Superior Council of Fine Arts ; a member of the 
General Council of Civil Buildings; two members of the Com- 
mission of Historical Moniiments, elected by their colleagues; 
a representative of the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine 
Arts ; a representative of the Minister of Finance ; a representa- 
tive of the Minister of the Interior; a representative of the 
Minister of Labor; a representative of the minister charged 
with the reconstitution of the liberated regions; a representa- 
tive of each religious denomination interested in the repair of 
buildings, appointed by the Minister of the Interior; and six 
artists (personnalites artistiques) appointed by the Minister of 
Public Instruction and Fine Arts. 

Within one month from the date of promulgation of the 
present law an administrative regulation shall determine the 
operations and procedure of this commission, whose duty it 
shall be to consult the municipal councils and groups interested. 

Article 13. Damages caused to movable property shall be 
repaired to the extent of the loss sustained, evaluated as of 
June 30, 1914, for movables other than agricultural products, 
and for the latter as of the date of maturity of the crop. In the 
case of movable property purchased or produced subsequent to 
June 30, 1914, the evaluation of the loss sustained shall always 
be made on the basis of the purchase price or cost of production 
if they can be established. 

[The second paragraph of this article was abrogated by a law 
of August 25, 1920.] 

The indemnity accorded in reparation of damages caused to 
raw materials and industrial stocks shall be paid in the way 
provided for by Article 8 whenever the claimant, if he has sus- 
tained damages to immovable property, shall not have consented 
to the condition of reemployment and whenever reemployment 
has not been prohibited. 

Supplementary expenses representing the difference between 
the loss sustained and the cost of replacement, calculated by 
taking account either of the cost of replacement if replacement 
has been effectuated, or of the cost of replacement at the date of 
evaluation if replacement has not yet been accomplished, shall 



314 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

also be accorded in the case of movable property comprised in 
the following categories : 

1. Raw materials and stocks indispensable for an industrial 
enterprise, to the extent of the quantity necessary for the 
resumption of normal operations and of manufacture for a 
period of three months, together with products in course of 
manufacture and objects appurtenant to the exercise of a 
profession. 

2. Animals, if they are not considered as immovables by 
destination, as well as fertilizer, seed, crops, and various prod- 
ucts necessary for the resumption of cultivation, the seeding of 
land, and the feeding of animals in agricultural enterprises 
until the next harvest. 

3. Equipment intended for use in commercial enterprises or 
in the exercise of a profession, together with goods and mer- 
chandise necessary to insure the carrying on of commerce or 
industry for a period of three months. 

4. Household goods, furniture, bedding, linen, personal 
effects; ornaments the value of which in each case did not 
exceed three thousand francs at the date of the declaration of 
war. 

Article 14. Damages caused by the loss of bonds or coupons 
of French government obligations shall be made good by the 
delivery of bonds or coupons of the same kind in replacement. 

In the case of French bonds or coupons other than those 
issued by the state, or of foreign bonds or coupons the restora- 
tion of which cannot be had in France by legal means, the 
damages shall be made good to the extent of the loss sustained, 
evaluated as of the last quoted market price before the date of 
the determination of the indemnity or, in default of quotation, 
by direct appraisal, the French government acting by subroga- 
tion for the claimants for the purpose of securing the resto- 
ration of their bonds or coupons, and reserving in all cases the 
right to free itself by the delivery of bonds or coupons of the 
same kind. 

Article 15. Immediate, direct, and certain war damages 
caused to public and administrative officers shall be compen- 
sated to the extent of the loss sustained, measured by the differ- 
ence between the value of the office at the date of mobilization 
and its value at the date of the evaluation [of the damage]. 

[The remainder of the article deals with the details of appli- 
cation of the foregoing provision.] 



APPENDIX B 315 

Article 16. The provisions of Article 10 relating to the 
conservation of rights in realty shall apply, in the case of mov- 
able property, either to the objects of replacement or to the in- 
demnity accorded in their place. 

Article 17. When protective measures have been taken to 
avoid damage to immovable or movable property or to prevent 
aggravation of damages, an indemnity shall be accorded in 
reimbursement of expenses duly proved. 

Article 18. The indemnities accorded under the provisions 
of the present title shall not be added to any other indemnity 
received on account of the same events, except the amounts 
which the French government shall have recovered from the 
enemy by virtue of conventions and treaties regarding damages 
of every kind which shall not have been provided for or which 
shall have been only partially provided for by the present law. 

The amounts accorded for the construction of temporary 
shelters for persons, animals, or effects shall not be deducted 
from the total of the indemnity. 

In case the claimant has taken out insurance covering war 
risks, the indemnity shall be calculated by deducting the 
amounts due from the insurer, but account shall be taken of 
premiums paid. In no case shall insurance companies have 
recourse against the state. 

Akticle 19. For the purpose of provisional construction and 
under the conditions of the present law the claimant may obtain 
a partial payment, the amount of which shall not exceed one- 
third of the total indemnity. In that case the balance of the 
indemnity shall, at the request of the interested p£|rty, be capi- 
talized at five per cent, by the treasury from the date of the 
initial credit, and the amount so obtained shall be paid to the 
claimant on condition of definitive construction,^ in accordance 
with the provisions of the present law regarding payment. 

TITLE III. JURISDICTION 

Article 20. Damages provided for by the present law shall 
be proved and evaluated by cantonal commissions formed for 
that purpose in conformity with the following provisions: 

In each department concerned prefectorial orders shall fix the 
period within which cantonal commissions shall be constituted, 

*/.c., on condition that th» amounts paid shall be used for per- 
manent construction. 



316 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

the number of those commissions for each canton, the seat and 
jurisdiction of each of them, and the date at which they shall 
begin operations. 

If the situation or condition of certain communes so require, 
the seat of a commission may be fixed in a commune of a neigh- 
boring department by order of the Minister of the Liberated 
Regions. 

When the place where the damage took place is not known, 
and when for other reasons it is not possible to proceed to prove 
such damage within the jurisdiction of the cantonal commis- 
sion already constituted, the proof and evaluation of the dam- 
age shall be made by a special commission the composition of 
which shall be the same as that of the cantonal commissions, 
and which shall have its seat at Paris. 

The tribunal of war damages of the Seine shall have jurisdic- 
tion to pass upon appeals taken from the decisions rendered by 
the commission in question. 

If the subject of the damage extends over several cantons, 
jurisdiction shall attach to the commission of the canton in 
which the principal part [of the damage] is situated. 

for the ascertainment and appraisal of war damages caused 
to ferries and to transport and towing enterprises on navigable 
waterways, a special commission sitting at Paris in the Min- 
istry of Public Works is established. If the place of the damage 
is known and the damage can be proved, the cantonal commis- 
sion of the place in which the damage occurred shall proceed to 
take the proof, if the interested party so requests, and in his 
presence. A record of the proceeding in proof shall be drawn 
up, and this record shall be transmitted within eight days to the 
special commission charged with the evaluation of the damage. 

Appeals taken from the decisions rendered by this special 
commission shall be brought before the tribunal of war dam- 
ages of the Seine. 

Article 21. The cantonal commissions shall be composed 
of five members: 

1. A president, chosen within the jurisdiction of the court 
o'f appeal by the presiding judge (premier president), or, in 
default [of such choice], outside of the jurisdiction, by the 
Minister of Justice, from among the judges of civil tribunals 
and judges of the peace or former magistrates of civil tribunals 
and tribunals of commerce who have served ten years, advocates 
who have practiced at least ten years, retired solicitors and 



APPENDIX B 317 

notaries who have practiced their profession for the same length 
of time or who for ten years in succession have practiced their 
profession of advocate or administrative officer or magisterial 
functions. 

2. A representative appointed by the ministers of Finance 
and of the Liberated Regions. 

3. An architect, contractor, or engineer. 

4. An official appraiser, clerk or retired clerk, dealer in furni- 
ture, or other person possessing special competence for the 
evaluation of household goods and personal effects. 

5. A farmer, industrial, merchant, or skilled workman, chosen 
according to the case and the nature of the damages to be 
evaluated. 

[A law of October 23, 1919, provided for the appointment of 
one or more alternates, etc. The members of the commission, 
except the representative of the Minister of Finance, together 
with alternates and secretaries, are to be appointed by the civil 
tribunal sitting en banc. The president and two members are 
necessary for the transaction of business. All correspondence 
is to be transmitted in sealed envelopes.] 

Article 22. In the case of damages to mines, mining prop- 
erties or quarries, woods and forests, or ponds, the commission 
shall be composed as follows : a president appointed as under the 
preceding article, a representative of the Minister of Finance, 
two members chosen by lot from among persons engaged in 
developing mines, woods, or ponds, and an agent of [the public 
service of] public works or of waters and forests, appointed by 
the ministers concerned, and a miner, according to the nature 
of the damages to be evaluated. 

In the case of damages to ferries, or to transport or towing 
enterprises on navigable waterways, the commission shall be 
composed as follows : a president appointed by the presiding 
judge of the court of Paris as under the preceding article, a 
representative of the Minister of Finance, a representative of 
the Minister ofjPublic Works, a shipbuilder or boatman. These 
last two members shall be appointed by the advisory committee 
of interior navigation, which shall at the same time designate in 
each category one or more alternates. 

Article 23. There shall be constituted in each department 
a technical committee, which shall prepare or cause to be pre- 
pared by competent persons or associations series of prices 
relating to immovable property, in order to facilitate on the 



318 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

one hand the calculation of the loss sustained, and on the other 
hand the determination of the supplementary expenses of re- 
construction and the value of replacement. 

This committee shall be called together by the president not 
later than the month preceding the meeting of each cantonal 
commission. It shall comprise, besides the prefect or his repre- 
sentative, a representative of the Minister of Public Works, a 
representative of the Minister of the Liberated Regions; the 
presidents and vice-presidents of commercial tribunals and 
chambers of commerce, of agricultural associations and com- 
mittees, and of conciliation councils of the department ; a mem- 
ber of the departmental council of civil buildings designated by 
that organization; a member of each of the societies of archi- 
tects and engineers existing in the department. 

The series of prices shall be placed at the disposition of the 
commissions of evaluation and of the appropriate tribunals, 
which may use them in evaluating damages and fixing in- 
demnities. 

Article 24. From the publication of the prefectorial order 
announcing that the commissions have begun operations, the 
parties interested shall be at liberty to file their claims, with 
the papers relating thereto, with the clerk of the appropriate 
commission, who shall give a receipt therefor. 

[A paragraph authorizing the deposit of papers with the 
mayor or prefect was abrogated by a law of August 25, 1920.] 

The sinistre shall indicate the names and residences of cred- 
itors, mortgagees, holders of liens, persons having rights of use, 
habitation, or easement, as well as those having rights under 
promises of sale, if any such there be. 

These creditors shall be informed of the claim by the clerk, and 
shall be entitled to present their case before the cantonal com- 
mission and the tribunal of war damages within eight days.^ 

In the case of property belonging to communes, if the mayor 
does not act within three months any registered taxpayer of 
the commune shall have the right to file a claim for the repara- 
tion of damages occasioned to communal property. 

[Article 25 relates to claims involving married women, incom- 
petents, absent persons, and persons under guardianship.] 

Article 26. If the sinistre shall show that it is practically 
impossible to proceed to the proof and evaluation of any save a 
part of the damages occasioned to his property, the commission 

* Amended by a law of August 25, 1920. 



APPENDIX B 31d 

shall proceed with partial proofs and evaluations. 'It shall at 
the same time, in a separate decision, give notice of the approxi- 
mate amount of damages not evaluated. 

In the case of the civil or church buildings referred to in 
Article 12, the commission shall also give provisional notice of 
the amount of the damages before transmitting the papers to 
the special commission constituted under the Ministry of Fine 
Arts by the said article.* 

Article 27. [The clerk is to notify and summon the inter- 
ested parties, the state being represented by the prefect.] 

The president is empowered to put the papers (dossiers) in 
proper form. 

The commission shall hear the parties and others interested. 
It may also hear any persons specially competent for the evalua- 
tion of particular kinds of damages, and may direct any expert 
examinations or measures of information that may seem to it 
useful. It may visit the places [where the damages are situated] 
and for this purpose may delegate two or more of its members. 

The commission may in all cases authorize its president to 
take personally the measures of information enumerated in this 
[the preceding] paragraph.' 

The parties may be assisted or represented by a member of 
their family, parent or relative, or by a member of the bar, or 
by a public or ministerial officer, or by a legal representative 
attached to the tribunals of commerce.* 

[Certain prior laws made applicable.] 

Article 28. The commission shall endeavor to bring the par- 
ties to an agreement, shall attest the settlements if any are 
made, and shall decide whether they ought to be approved by 
judicial or administrative authority (homologues). In that 
case the settlement shall be final; a record with statement of 
reasons shall be drawn up, and the evaluation shall be con- 
clusive. 

In case an agreement is not reached the commission shall 
draw up a statement of the claims and contentions of the parties 
and of the points on which they disagree. It shall establish the 
reality and importance of the damages by categories, in accord- 
ance with Article 2 of the present law, with a separate evalua- 
tion of each of the elements of which it is composed. 

'Amended form of Article 26, under a law of August 25, 1920. 
* Amended by a law of October 23, 1919. 
"Amended by a law of August 25, 1920. 



320 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The clerk shall send to the parties, by registered letter with a 
request for acknowledgment of its receipt, a summary notice 
of the decisions of the commission, and at the same time shall 
notify them that they have a period of one month from the date 
when the notice is received in which to examine their papers at 
the clerk's office and, if they wish, to carry their contentions to 
the tribunal of war damages. 

This tribunal acquires jurisdiction by a statement entered by 
the parties, or by their specially authorized agent, upon a 
register kept by the clerk of the said tribunal, who shall give a 
receipt for the statement. 

The record of the cantonal commission, the facts of the case, 
and all the documents shall then be transmitted by the clerk 
of the commission to the clerk of the tribunal of war damages. 

Article 29. There shall be established temporarily at the 
seat of government (chef-Keu) of each arrondissement in which 
cantonal commissions have been constituted a tribunal of war 
damages. 

If circumstances are such that a tribunal cannot be estab- 
lished at the seat of government (siege), it shall be set up pro- 
visionally in a neighboring arrondissement. 

The tribunal may be divided into as many sections (chamhres) 
as the need may require. Business shall be distributed among 
the sections by the president of the first section ; matters relating 
to the same canton shall, so far as possible, be assigned to the 
same section. 

Each section of this tribunal shall be composed: 

1. Of a president designated by decree, on the recommenda- 
tion of the Minister of Justice, from among the honorary or 
active judges of the courts of appeal and tribunals of first 
instance. 

2. Of two members and two alternates designated in the same 
manner as the president, and chosen from among the active or 
honorary judges of the courts of appeal and tribunals of first 
instance and prefectorial councils, former heads of the society 
of advocates, professors of law faculties, former presidents of 
the society of advocates of the Council of State and the Court 
of Cassation and of societies of solicitors and notaries. 

3. Of two members and two alternates chosen by lot, at the 
beginning of each session of two months, from a list of twenty 
members designated by the general council. 



APPENDIX B 321 

No decision of the tribunal shall be valid unless three mem- 
bers, including the president, are present. 

The tribunal shall be assisted by a clerk appointed by order 
of the Minister of Justice. 

Article 30. The tribunal shall pronounce upon the reality 
and importance of damages, in as many separate decisions as 
there are categories, in accordance with Article 2 of the present 
law, with separate evaluation of each of the elements which they 

comprise. i , j j 

If the rules prescribed by the present law and by decrees and 
orders issued for its execution shall not have been observed, it 
shall set aside the irregular proceedings either of its own motion 
or at the request of the interested parties. If a judgment 
setting aside a proceeding is rendered the tribunal may, accord- 
ing to the circumstances and the state of the record, remand 
the case to the cantonal commission or proceed itself to the 
evaluation of the damages and the determination of the in- 
demnity. 

The tribunal shall decide upon written statements and with- 
out appeal upon report by one of the judges. The parties may, 
at their request, themselves present brief oral arguments or may 
have the same presented by a member of their family, parent or 
relative, by a practicing advocate, by an administrative officer 
of the jurisdiction, o,r by the representative of a regularly con- 
stituted association of sinistres. 

The report shall be read and judgment pronounced at a public 

sitting. 1 j: 

[Article 31 relates to allowances to be made to members oi 
commissions and tribunals.] 

Article 32. Every mode of proof, even by simple presump- 
tions, shall be admissible to establish the reality and importance 
of the damages, whatever their nature, covered by the present 
law. 

Parents and domestic servants may be heard as witnesses. 

The cantonal commission and the tribunal of war damages 
may direct the production of extracts, attested copies, copies of 
public or private papers, of registers and commercial ac- 
counts, and in general of all papers relevant to the establish- 
ment of the reality of the damage and the ascertainment of 
the evaluation. 

They shall fix the periods within which inquiries, expert 
examinations, and other methods of obtaining information are 



322 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

to be completed. Experts who do not conform to the limits of 
time set for them may be removed. 

Article 33, If there shall be dispute in regard to the legal 
right or standing of the claimant, and whenever difficulties 
foreign to the determination of the amount of the indemnity 
shall arise, the indemnity shall be determined independently of 
such disputes and difficulties, with respect to which the parties 
shall be relegated to their remedies at law. 

Article 34. Periods of time are to be reckoned in accordance 
with Article 1,033 of the code of civil procedure. 

[Article 35 exempts from internal revenue charges the deci- 
sions, papers, etc., of the commissions and tribunals, but un- 
stamped instruments presented are to be stamped if the law so 
requires.] 

Article 36. Appeal may be taken from the decisions of the 
tribunal of war damages to the Council of State on the ground 
of want of jurisdiction, undue exercise of power, or violation 
of law. The period allowed [for appeal] shall be one month 
from the date at which the parties are notified of the decision 
by the clerk, by registered letter with a request for acknowledg- 
ment of receipt.' The [notice of] appeal shall be filed with the 
clerk of the tribunal of war damages. 

The judgment annulling the decision shall designate a tri- 
bunal to pass de novo upon the claim to indemnity. 

Article 37. [The first paragraph of this article, limiting to 
two years from the signature of the treaty of peace the period 
within which claims to indemnity under Article 2 might be 
presented, was abrogated by a law of August 25, 1920.] 

If the commissions and the tribunal established by the present 
law shall have been dissolved at the time when action is begun, 
the action shall be brought before the prefectorial council sub- 
ject to appeal to the Council of State. 

Article 38. Membership of a tribunal of war damages shall 
be incompatible with membership of a cantonal commission, 
with the character of a claimant within the jurisdiction of the 
tribunal, and with the exercise of an elective office. 

Article 39. Every person who by reason of his office or 
functions is called upon to participate in the procedure estab- 
lished by the present law shall be bound to professional secrecy 
under the provisions of Article 378 of the penal code, and liable 
to the penalties provided by the said article. 

^This sentence is as amended by a law of August 25, 1920. 



APPENDIX B 323 

[Article 40 provides for the issuance of a decree defining the 
duties of clerks of commissions and tribunals.] 

Article 41. There shall be delivered to the claimant upon 
his request and within fifteen days, by the clerk of the cantonal 
commission or of the tribunal of war damages, a summary of 
every decision in which he is concerned. The summary shall 
indicate the name of the claimant, the category and nature of 
the damages, the amount of the loss sustained and, if such there 
be, the amount representing depreciation for age and the supple- 
mentary expenses of .reconstitution or replacement. 

[Certain certificates for use before the Council of State are 
to be delivered under the same conditions.] 

Article 42. During the course of a proceeding for the 
evaluation of the indemnity for damages sustained by conces- 
sionaires of state, departmental, or communal public services, 
modifications of the contract and of the conditions imposed 
may be made, on the initiative of the authority granting the 
concession or of the concessionaires, particularly in order to 
improve the conditions of exploitation, saving the rights and 
interests of the concessionaires in case such modifications in- 
crease the obligations of the original concession. In default of 
an agreement within three months following the decision, the 
authority which granted the concession shall have an unre- 
stricted right of repurchase. 

The repurchase shall be proceeded with under the conditions 
imposed by the contract if such repurchase is provided for, and, 
if not, upon the testimony of experts based in every case upon 
the results of exploitation for the last five years preceding the 
year 1914. The authority granting the concession shall, in the 
event of repurchase, be subrogated without restriction to the 
concessionaire in all the rights accorded by the present law. 

TITLE IV. PAYMENT 

Article 43. When a final decision shall have been made 
regarding one or several of the categories of damages set forth 
in Article 2 or on account of the damages provided for by 
Article 15, each of the summaries delivered to the claimant in 
accordance with Article 41 shall, at his request, be exchanged 
within two months, under the direction of the Minister of 
Finance, for a bond representing the total amount accorded for 
the .reparation of the loss sustained. This bond shall not be 



324 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

negotiable *; it may be made the subject of advances under con- 
ditions to be determined by orders of the ministers of Finance 
and of the Liberated Regions; it may also, upon the authoriza- 
tion accompanied by a statement of reasons of the civil tribunal 
given en hanc with the approval of the associated magistrates, 
be assigned in accordance with the provisions of articles 1,689 
and following of the civil code, or pledged in accordance with 
articles 2,071 and following of the same code. 

The claimant who shall reemploy [the indemnity] under the 
conditions and according to the forms provided for by articles 4 
and 5, or who shall subsequently exercise the privilege reserved 
to him by Article 9, shall receive, under the same conditions, a 
further bond indicating the amount of supplementary expenses 
accorded to him. 

A similar additional bond shall be delivered for the excess of 
the value of replacement over the amount of the loss sustained 
in the case of the movable effects provided for by sections 1 to 4 
of paragraph 4 of Article 13. In the case of the movables 
covered by the first three sections of the said paragraph, the 
delivery of the additional bond is made conditional upon the 
resumption of exploitation. 

The amoimts representing depreciation through age, as shown 
by the summary of the final decision, shall entitle the claimant 
to a special instrument (titre) setting forth the right of the 
claimant to the advance provided for by paragraph 5 of Article 5 
of the present law. 

Within two months a special bond shall be delivered in 
exchange for the summary of the final decision regarding repa- 
ration, [to the amount of] the capital sum, with interest at five 
per cent, per annum, dating from the time when the damage, 
money exactions, fines, and war contributions imposed by the 
enemy authorities or troops took place. The amounts due under 
this head shall, upon presentation of the bond, be paid to the 
claimant in cash. 

Article 44. If the claimant shall reemploy [the indemnity] 
in the case either of immovable property, under the conditions 
provided for by articles 4 and 5, or of personal effects, or if 
he shall enter into an undertaking before the cantonal com- 
mission or the tribunal of war damages to proceed to such re- 

* Modified by the budget law of July 31, 1920, providing for the 
issuance of annuity bonds to sinistres or groups of sinistres whose 
indemnities amounted to 1,000,000 francs or over, and permitting 
fiuch sinistres to pledge the bonds as collateral for loans. 



APPENDIX B 325 

employment or such reconstitution, he shall be entitled without 
[further] proof [of his intention], within two months from the 
delivery of the bond, to a first installment of 25 per cent, on 
the amount allowed for loss sustained, which installment shall 
not be less than 3,000 francs if the loss sustained equals or 
exceeds that figure, nor more than 100,000 francs, unless he shall 
show proof before the tribunal of war damages, in particular by 
the production of receipts, accounts, invoices, bills of lading, 
o.r accepted orders from supply houses, of [actual] employment 
or greater immediate needs. 

The balance of the amount of the loss sustained shall be paid 
to him in successive installments proportioned to proofs [sub- 
mitted] of work done or purchases made, under the conditions 
set forth in the preceding paragraph. Each payment shall be 
made within two months after proof [is submitted]. 

When the payment of the loss sustained shall have been com- 
pleted, the amount of the supplementary expenses shall be paid 
under the same conditions upon presentation of the additional 
bond. 

The same procedure shall be followed in the case of the excess 
of the value of replacement over the amount of the loss sus- 
tained so far as the movable property covered by sections 1 to 4 
of paragraph 4 of Article 13 is concerned. 

The amounts allowed to the claimant for the reparation of 
damages caused to the movable property covered by paragraph 2 
of Article 13 of the present law shall be paid after the payment 
of all other amounts due to the said claimant, whatever they 
may be. 

If the claimant, after devoting to the reconstruction of build- 
ings or the reestablishment of an enterprise the amount of the 
supplementary expenses, exercises the right reserved to him by 
paragraph 5 of Article 5, the amount representing depreciation 
through age shall be paid to him on presentation of the special 
bond in proportion to the proofs of reemployment submitted. 

Without regard to the application of the foregoing provisions 
and before any evaluation of war damages, advances for the 
most urgent needs may be accorded to sinistres under conditions 
which shall be determined jointly by the Minister of the Lib- 
erated Regions and the Minister of Finance. 

Article 45. In case the claimant shall be entitled only to 
the amount of the loss sustained, if he sh^ll within two years 
make declaration before the cantonal commission or before the 
tribunal of war damages of his intention to devote the indem- 



326 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

nity to [the restoration of] immovable property or to agricul- 
tural, industrial, or commercial purposes, or to the exercise of 
a profession anywhere within the territory, the indemnity rep- 
resenting the loss sustained shall also be paid to him in suc- 
cessive installments in accordance with proofs submitted of 
work done or purchases made. 

Article 46. The state may discharge its obligation, with the 
consent of the claimants, in any of the following ways : 

In the case of immovable property [which is such] by nature, 
by the donation of other immovable property of the same kind 
and the same value situated in the canton in which the damage 
was done or in other cantons of the liberated regions (cantons 
limitrophes) ; 

In the case of immovables by destination and of movables of 
industrial, commercial, agricultural, professional or domestic 
character, by [the donation of] similar property of the same 
value; 

In the case of other movable property by the delivery of other 
movables of the same kind or the same value. 

The state may also discharge its obligation in whole or in 
part by carrying out at its own expense the work of .restoring 
movable or immovable property that has been damaged or by 
furnishing the materials for such restoration. 

It shall also have the right to acquire in whole or in part 
immovable property damaged or destroyed. In default of an 
amicable agreement the price shall be determined according to 
the rules laid down under the preceding title for the evaluation 
of indemnity, account being taken of the value of the soil, 
including therein all of the elements provided for in case of 
reemployment, if the vendor shall take the engagement regard- 
ing reemployment set forth by Article 5 of the present law. 
Payment shall be made according to circumstances in the way 
provided for by articles 44 and 45. 

The state shall have the right to acquire immovable property, 
following an attempt at agreement, if the restoration of the 
soil shall exceed the value of the land as diminished for purposes 
of use, account being taken, if necessary, of the depreciation 
which the remainder of the property would suffer in case of 
partial acquisition. 

The state shall have the right, in all cases and at all times, 
to discharge its obligation by anticipation. 

If the claimant is indebted to the state on any account what- 



APPENDIX B 327 

ever, even in the payment of his taxes, the amount so owed by 
him shall, at hie request, be credited upon the amount of his 
indemnity, and shall not be demandable before that amount 
shall have been determined. 

Article 47. The amounts due from the state in reparation 
of loss sustained, with the exception of those due for damages 
caused to pleasure resorts and to the movable property referred 
to in paragraph 2 of Article 13, shall bear interest from 
November 11, 1918, at five per cent, per annum, payable to the 
claimant quarterly in cash. 

In all cases of damages caused to merchandise, crops, products, 
and stocks of provisions, and to raw materials which shall not 
enjoy the benefits of the provisions of paragraph 4, sections 1, 
2, and 3, of Article 13, the interest shall begin six months after 
the date of the damage. 

Article 48. The payment of indemnities, interest, and ad- 
vances shall be made directly by the state or under its guaranty. 
In case the state shall invite the cooperation of financial estab- 
lishments, the agreements made shall be submitted for ratifica- 
tion to the chambers. 

TITLE V. MISCELLANEOUS PKOVISIONS 

[Article 49 relates to the conditions under which indemnity 
may be assigned, including assignments to building and loan 
associations and cooperative societies. A law of October 23, 
1919, extended the provisions of this article to public services 
and societies concerned with the provision of low-priced dwell- 
ings, and authorized the acquisition of damaged immovables 
with a view to providing such dwellings in the liberated regions. 
Article 50 authorizes a claimant who, before the adoption of 
the present law, had sold land on which there were buildings 
to recover the same by action at law.] 

Article 51. The tribunal of war damages shall have the 
right, without recourse and without appeal, of its own motion 
and notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, to reduce 
the amounts demanded of a claimant by agents or architects 
(hommes de I'art) whom he may have employed for the defense 
of his interests, as well as [the amounts demanded] by experts. 

The reduction shall not be requested, or adjudged by the 
tribunal of its own motion, later than two years from the 
[date of the] determination of the indemnity. 



328 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The amounts paid may be recovered. 

[Articles 52 and 53 provide for forfeiture of the right to 
indemnity in the case of persons convicted of offenses under 
military laws, French subjects who deserted during the war or 
failed to serve when called, and claimants who use their in- 
demnities in contravention of the provisions of the present law. 
Article 54 prescribes the judicial procedure in such cases.] 

Article 55. A person engaged in industry or commerce who 
Bhall have restored his establishment, wholly or partially, under 
the condition? set forth under Title II of the present law shall 
be required, within fifteen days after the establishment has 
resumed operations, to give notice thereof to the Minister of 
Labor, who shall deliver to him a receipt and take all appro- 
priate measures to bring the said notice to the knowledge of the 
workmen or employees whom the person engaged in industry 
or commerce [formerly] employed. During the month follow- 
ing the declaration the workmen or employees shall be allowed 
to resume work in the order of their registration and to the 
extent of the needs of the enterprise. 

Article 56. A right of priority as against all others shall 
be accorded to sinistres in the acquisition and transport of 
materials, raw materials, and necessary supplies, as well as in 
obtaining the labor needed by them in order to make reemploy- 
ment [of indemnities] effectual. This right of priority shall 
be regulated by a decree to be issued within a month from the 
promulgation of the present law. 

Article 57. As a provisional matter the decisions already 
rendered by the cantonal commissions in accordance with the 
provisions of articles 3 to 8 of the decree of July 20, 1915, 
and by the departmental commissions in accordance with the 
provisions of titles II and III of the same decree shall, upon 
the request either of the prefect or of claimants or their legal 
representatives, be revised and completed if need be in accord- 
ance with the provisions of the present law. They may in any 
case be contested before the tribunal of war damages within 
eix months from the date of promulgation of the present law.* 

Article 58. In case societies shall have been organized for 
the purpose of rebuilding works (etahlissements) or destroyed 
buildings, they shall receive, in the event of non-reemployment 

* A law of November 26. 1920, required the filing before December 
31, 1920, of the requests for revision referred to in this article. 



APPENDIX B 329 

[of an indemnity] by a member, and even in the absence of an 
assignment consented to by him, the amount of the supple- 
mentary expenses in lieu of the common fund created under 
paragraph 2 of Article 7 of the present law. 

Article 59. The expenses of remaking the cadastre, of sur- 
vey, and if necessary of reparcelment [of communes] required 
by the events of the war shall be at the cost of the state. 

Article 60. The expenses of removing debris (dehlaiement) 
from all immovable property and of searching for and removing 
unexploded projectiles shall also be at the cost of the state, 
which may undertake this work of its own motion, by agreement 
with the municipality, without the authorization of the owners 
[of the property]. The state shall become the owner of the 
materials [so removed]. 

The state shall be responsible for accidents due to the explo- 
sion of unexploded projectiles. 

Article 61. The expense of preparing plans of lines and 
levels for public ways of all kinds, which may require to be 
drawn up with a view to the .reconstruction of destroyed build- 
ings in communes or parts of communes which have suf- 
fered from the events of the war, shall be at the cost of the 
state. 

Subventions included in the budget of the ministry charged 
with the reconstitution of the liberated regions may be granted 
by the minister to communes for the expenditures required for 
the immediate application of the plans of lines and levels, in 
the case of ways the soil of which belongs to them, and to 
departments in the case of departmental highways. 

These subventions shall be applicable in particular to the 
acquisition of vacant land, or of buildings actually ruined or 
seriously injured, comprised within the alignments. The price 
of acquisition of such lands and buildings shall, in default of 
amicable agreement, be fixed by a jury composed of four jurors 
under the conditions prescribed by Article 16 of the law of 
May 21, 1836, no matter what may be the character of the 
public way in which the said lands and buildings shall be 
incorporated. 

The interest upon the said subventions shall be determined 
in accordance with a scale to be fixed by a decree countersigned 
by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of the Liberated 
Regions. 

Article 62. Expenditures resulting from improvements re- 



330 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

quired by public hygiene in groups of buildings under tlie 
administrative regulations provided for by Article 5 shall be 
at the cost of the state. 

Article 63. The amounts which are still owed by communes 
in France upon loans contracted by them ton account of the 
events of former wars shall be assumed by the .state from the 
date of promulgation of the present law. 

Article 64. A special law will regulate the rights and obli- 
gations under leases in the case of immovable property which 
shall have suffered by the events of war, as well as those of 
fortified places or localities whose inhabitants have been evacu- 
ated by military order. 

Article 65. A special law will regulate the conditions under 
which the right to reparation of damages occasioned to com- 
mercial capital shall be accorded. 

Article 66. A special law will determine the conditions 
under which the right to reparation shall be exercised in the 
case of: 

1. Damages to persons resulting from the events of the war. 

2. Damages which any one may have had to suffer in person 
or property in consequence of accidents which shall have oc- 
curred : 

(a) in state arsenals, factories, o-r munitions depots; 

(b) in private factories working for national defense, if 
reparation cannot be had by recourse to general law. The 
state shall be subrogated to the rights, actions, and privileges 
of the victim of the damage for the purpose of recovering the 
advances which it shall have authorized in his case in order 
to meet his most urgent needs. 

Article 67. During the three years which shall follow the 
cessation of hostilities the inhabitants of the regions which have 
suffered from the events of the war who shall provide, in their 
own dwellings, rooms capable of being let or sublet furnished to 
transient visitors shall be entitled, in each commune, to form a 
syndicate in accordance with the law of March 21, 1884. 

The lodgings offered shall conform to the conditions pre- 
scribed by the departmental commission of hygiene and shall 
be subject to its control. 

A list of these lodgings with the scale of prices, approved by 
the National Touring Bureau, shall be placed at the disposition 
of all inquirers at the mairie. 

Article 68. The present law shall apply to the colonies and 



APPENDIX B 331 

protectorates. An administrative regulation shall determine 
the conditions of its application. 

The indemnities accorded in reparation of damages caused by 
the events of war in the colonies shall be carried by the credits 
opened in the general budget of the state. 

[Article 69 amends the law of July 5, 1917, as to proof of the 
condition of places in regard to which claims for war damages 
may be asserted. Article 70 repeals the decrees of February 4, 
1915, as modified by the decrees of April 7 and 8, 1915; the 
decrees of March 24, 1915, as modified by the decree of April 22, 
1915; the decree of July 20, 1915, and all other provisions con- 
trary to the present law.] 



APPENDIX C 

Law of the Cooperative Eeconstruction Societies* 

August 15, 1920 

Law fixing the legal status of cooperative reconstruction soci- 
eties formed by sinistres for the reconstitution of immovable 
property which has suffered by the events of the war. 

TITLE I. GENEKAL PROVISIONS 

Article 1. Cooperative reconstruction societies may be 
formed by persons entitled to indemnity in reparation of dam- 
ages to immovable property, or by persons having an interest 
therein, by virtue of the law of April 17, 1919, 

These societies shall have for their object the carrying on, 
on behalf of their members, of all the operations relating to the 
reconstitution of immovable property, in particular the prepa- 
ration of papers (dossiers), the evaluation of damages, the 
execution, supervision, and payment of work of repair or 
reconstitution, and the reemployment of advances and partial 
payments provided for by the law above referred to. 

They shall enjoy the status of civil persons. 

Article 2. The duration of the society shall be determined 
by the accomplishment of the object for which it shall have 
been formed. 

The society shall not be dissolved before the expiration of its 
term except through a vote of the general assembly repres anting 
the majority both in members and in amounts [of indemnity 
involved], or by a judicial decision for grave causes duly proved. 

The life of the society shall not terminate with the death, 
failure, judicial liquidation, bankruptcy, or acts of any of its 
members; in these various cases, as in the case of assignment, 
it shall continue under the heirs or legal claimants. 

* Bulletin dea Lois, Nouvelle Serie, No. 279, pp. 3950-3955. 

332 



APPENDIX C 333 

Article 3. The general assembly of the members shall have 
full authority to act regarding the statutes and all other affairs 
of the society. It shall comprise two-thirds of the members 
representing one-half of the total amount of the indemnities 
administered by the society. 

If the first assembly shall not fulfill the conditions above 
prescribed, a new assembly shall be convoked. Its decisions 
shall be final provided it shall include at least one-half of the 
members representing one-third of the total amount of the 
indemnities. 

If these conditions shall still not be fulfilled, a third assem- 
bly shall be convoked, and its action shall be valid whatever the 
number of members present and whatever the total amount of 
the indemnities represented. 

Decisions shall always be taken by an absolute majority of 
the members present or .represented. 

The assembly shall choose an administrative council taken 
from the members of the society. Those who have made con- 
tracts with the society for the performance of work or the sale 
of supplies shall be ineligible. 

The administrative council shall act in general on behalf of 
its members as their agent in relation to the state and its agents, 
and shall administer their interests in accordance with the 
provisions of the present law. 

It shall in particular make all contracts and purchases in 
their name, and shall cause to be executed the work of repairing 
ar reconstituting their immovable property in accordance with 
plans and specifications accepted by them. 

It shall be the legal representative of the society in judicial 
proceedings. 

The council may delegate all or a part of its powers to one 
of its members, and may on its own responsibility devolve upon 
a director or superintendent the execution and supervision of 
the operations of the society. 

Article 4. The resources appropriate to the society shall 
comprise : 

1. Payments made by the members as their proportionate 
part of a general fund to be used in meeting the charges and 
expenses of the society. 

2. Subventions and advances, if such there be, accorded by 
the state. 

3. Contributions, gifts, or legacies made to the society. 



334 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

The expenses of the society shall comprise the charges and 
expenditures necessary for its operation. 

Article 5. Payments made by the state to the society for 
the account of its members shall be made by means of credits 
established in its name at the offices of the disbursing agents 
of the treasury or at establishments designated for that purpose. 

Individual accounts, distinct from those of the society, shall 
be opened on the books of the agency with each member, which 
accounts shall show, first, the amounts which the society has 
received on his account and which are required to be devoted 
strictly to the reparation or reconstitution of immovable 
property under the conditions of reemployment prescribed by 
the law of April 17^ 1919; and, second, the amounts owed by the 
society or paid on its account. 

Article 6. The administrators shall be responsible to the 
society and to third parties for violations of the provisions of 
the present law and for serious mistakes which they may have 
made in the exercise of their functions. 

Article 7. The members of the society shall be responsible 
for the debts and obligations of the society to the extent pro- 
vided for by Article 4 of the present law and in proportion to 
their interests. 

They shall not be allowed to withdraw from the society before 
the determination of their indemnities by the commissions and 
[other] competent bodies, nor, in case they have elected to 
reemploy [their indemnities], before the completion of the work 
of reconstituting their immovable property and the subsequent 
settlement of their individual accounts. 

Article 8. Within a month from the time when a coopera- 
tive society or union of cooperative societies shall have been 
formed a duplicate of the act of organization, if executed under 
private seal, or an attested copy if executed by a notary, shall 
be filed with the clerk of the justice of the peace of the canton 
and at the prefecture of the department. 

Within the same period a summary of the act of organization 
shall be published in one of the newspapers of the arrondisse- 
ment of the same department designated for the reception of 
legal notices. 

The formalities above prescribed shall be observed by the 
society under penalty of nullity. 

Article 9. The order in which work relative to immovable 
property which is to be repaired or reconstructed shall be per- 



APPENDIX C 335 

formed shall be determined under conditions prescribed by the 

statutes [of the society]. 

[Article 10 exempts from registration and stamping the acts 
relating to the organization, etc., of a society and all other 
action taken in fulfillment of its purposes.] 

Article 11. Cooperative reconstruction societies formed in 
accordance with the provisions of the present law shall be 
allowed to form unions, under the same conditions, for the 
purpose of entering into contracts, making joint purchases, 
centralizing operations of accounting, and aiding one another 
in the administration of their common interests. 

Article 12. In addition to the conditions prescribed by the 
present law, cooperative reconstruction societies or unions of 
the same shall be subject to the general principles of law 
applicable to contracts and obligations. 

TITLE II. SPECIAL PROVISIONS RELATING TO 
COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND UNIONS OF CO- 
OPERATIVE SOCIETIES APPROVED BY THE 
STATE 

Article 13. Such cooperative societies only as shall have 
received the approval of the state shall be allowed to benefit by 
the pecuniary advantages stipulated by the present law. 

Article 14. The conditions of approval shall be as follows: 

1. The statutes shall be framed in conformity with the essen- 
tial provisions contained in the typical statutes drawn up by 
the Ministry of the Liberated Regions. 

2. The choice of architects, contractors, and experts (hommes 
de I'art) intrusted by the society with the preparation of plans 
or the superintendence, execution, and direction of work shall 
be made from a list prepared for each department with the 
cooperation of the approved societies and under conditions to 
be fixed by decree. 

3. The society shall be required to have a system of account- 
ing and shall be subject to financial control by the state. 

4. It shall be composed of the sinistres or their representa- 
tives of one ox several communes. Not more than one coopera- 
tive society, however, shall be allowed in the same commune 
unless the amount of damages occasioned to the immovable 
property of the members, calculated on the basis of the loss 
sustained, shall equal at least one million francs. 



336 RECONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 

Article 16. The [fulfillment of] tlie conditions of approval 
shall be verified by a special committee presided over by the 
prefect, which shall decide within fifteen days in regard to the 
filing of the request [for approval], 

A .refusal of approval shall be accompanied by a statement 
of the reasons therefor. The decision rendered shall be subject 
to appeal to a special committee, sitting at Paris and presided 
over by the Minister of the Liberated Regions, which shall give 
its decision within one month. 

One-third of the members of these committees, which shall 
be appointed under the conditions set forth in Article 22 of 
the present law, shall be members of cooperative societies. 

Article 16. Approval may be withdrawn by the minister, on 
the advice of the central committee, in case of failure to observe 
the requirements laid down by the present law o,r of grave 
mistakes committed by the administrators, the right being 
reserved to the society to appeal to the Council of State. 

Article 17. For the purpose of facilitating the operations 
of the general services of approved cooperative societies, sub- 
ventions shall be granted to them by the state in accordance 
with a scale annexed to the present law, [such subventions to 
be included] in the credits carried by the budget of the Min- 
istry of the Liberated Regions. 

Article 18. In addition to the individual advances and par- 
tial payments provided for by the law of April 17, 1919, and 
for the purpose of facilitating the constitution of a general fund 
for approved cooperative societies, advances to be repaid may 
be made to them by the Minister of the Liberated Regions with" 
the approval of the Minister of Finance. 

Article 19. The state shall have the right to make con- 
tracts mutually satisfactory with cooperative reconstruction 
societies for the execution of the work of clearing away debris, 
whatever the importance of such work may be. 

Article 20. The following may become members of ap- 
proved cooperative societies and may take part in their opera- 
tions on the same basis as other members: 

1. Departments, communes, and public enterprises, under 
conditions to be determined by a decree issued by the Minister 
of the Liberated Regions with the approval of the ministers of 
the Interior and of Finance. 

2. Incompetent persons duly authorized. 

Article 21. Societies or unions of societies already formed, 



APPENDIX C 337 

whatever the nature of their organization, for the purpose of 
repairing or reconstructing immovable property which has been 
destroyed or injured by the events of war, societies for pro- 
viding low-priced houses, and societies which make loans on 
immovable property may, if approved by administrative order, 
obtain the approval of the Minister of the Liberated Regions 
in the way prescribed by articles 13 and following of the 
present law. 

Article 22. Within one month from the date of promul- 
gation of the present law a decree, issued at the instance of 
the Minister of the Liberated Regions and countersigned by 
the Minister of Finance, shall determine the method of accord- 
ing subventions and advances, the form of accounting, the 
composition of the departmental committees and of the central 
committee, the procedure for the establishment of lists of 
architects, contractors, and experts and, in general, all measures 
having to do with the application of the present law. 

Article 23. The present law shall apply to the departments 
of the Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin, and Moselle as well as to the 
other French departments. 



APPENDIX D 

The figures of population under the census of March, 1921, 
made public on December 30, are given in the following 
tables, the corresponding figures for 1911 being added for pur- 
poses of comparison. 

I. Departments 





1921 


1911 


Gain 


Loss 


Aisne 


421,515 


530,226 




108,711 


Ardennes 


277,811 


318,896 




41,085 


Belfort 


94,338 


101,386 




7,048 


Marne 


366,734 


436,310 




69,576 


Meurthe-et- 
Moselle 


503,810 


564,730 




60,920 


Meuse 


207,309 


277,955 




70,646 


Nord 


1,787,918 


1,961,780 




173,862 


Oise 


387,760 


411,028 




23,268 






Pas-de-Calais. , 


989,967 


1,068,185 




78,218 


Seine-et-Marne . 


349,234 


363,561 




14,327 


Somme 


452,624 


520,161 




67,537 


Vosges 


383,684 


433,914 




50,230 


Total 


6,222,704 


6,988,132 




765,428 



338 



APPENDIX D 

n. Cities of over 30.000 



339 





1921 


1911 


Gain 


Loss 


Amiens 


92,780 


93,207 




427 


Belf ort 


39,301 


39,371 




70 


Chalons-sur- 
Marae 


31,194 


31,367 




173 




34,803 


36,314 




1,511 






Lille 


200,952 


217,807 




16,855 






Nancy 


113,226 


119,949 




6,723 


Eeims 


76,645 


115,178 




38,533 


Eoubaix 


113,265 


122,723 




9,458 


St. Quentin 


37,345 


55,571 




18,226 


Tourcoing 


78,600 


82,644 




4,044 


Valenciennes . . . 


34,425 


34,766 




341 



INDEX 



Administrative questions in- 
volved in reconstruction, 39. 

Advances, classes of, 174-177; to 
cooperative societies, 213-214. 
See also Credits and Revolving 
funds. 

Agache, A. R., 269. 

Agricultural Academy of France, 
162. 

Agricultural machinery, 154-155, 
160-161 ; products, see Crops. 

Agriculture, chief industry of 
devastated areas, 10-11; re- 
vival of, 41, 153-171; relation 
of, to industry, 133, 296. 

Aisne (Department of), devasta- 
tion of, 36; resuming indutry 
in, 137-139; cattle placed in, 
158-159; restoration of soil in, 
162; crops in 1920-21, 199-200; 
cooperative societies in, 215, 
219; monuments destroyed in, 
224; medical relief stations in, 
258; children from, given holi- 
day, 259-260; model village in, 
272; school buildings given to 
Chassemy in, 284; work in, of 
American Committee for Dev- 
astated France, 285-286, 290. 

Albert, town of, destroyed, 26; 
reconstruction delayed, 201. 

Algiers, war damages in, 70, 126. 

Alsace-Lorraine, 5, 9, 18, 100, 
102; industrial resources of, 
132, 187; machinery made in, 
140; iron mines in, 141, 149- 
151 ; foreigners in, entitled to 
war indemnities, 238; children 
entertained in, 259-260. 

American, Civil War, 5, 40; com- 
mittee for devastated France, 
285-291 ; forestry association. 



169; methods, of social settle- 
ment work, 285, and of pre- 
serving food, 289; payment of 
claims, 242; Women's Hospital, 
286. 

Amiens, city of, 7, 10; history, 
19; injuries, 25; railway shops, 
108; new houses, 117; resuming 
industry, 137; cathedral, 225- 
226. 

Angelus fund, for church bells, 
289. 

Anglo-American Friends' Mis- 
sion, 282, 291. 

Aniche Coal Company, 148-149. 

Ardennes (Department of), dev- 
astation of, 37; resuming in- 
dustry in, 137-139; cattle re- 
placed in, 158-159; restoration 
of soil in, 162; cooperative 
societies in, 215; monuments 
destroyed in, 225; medical re- 
lief stations in, 258. 

Armistice, of November 11, 1918, 
4, 23, 69. 

Arras, town of, 7, 8, 10; history, 
19; war injuries, 25; new 
houses, 117; resuming industry, 
137; ruins long unrelieved, 201; 
monuments destroyed, 225 ; 
contribution from Newcastle, 
281. 

Artistic interest, of devastated 
areas, 19-20; of monuments, 
223-236. 

Athletics, introduced by Amer- 
icans, 289. 

Aube (Department of), 2-3, 6. 

Auburtin, J. M., 269. 

Banks, share of, in reconstruc- 
tion, 139. 



341 



342 



INDEX 



Bas-Rhin, new department of, 
211, 213. 

Belfort, territory of, 2-3. 

Belgium, agreement with, 238; 
claims against, left for adjust- 
ment, 243; skilled workmen 
from, 245. 

Bethune, town of, destroyed, 26; 
mines near, 142-144, 148; re- 
construction delayed, 201 ; co- 
operative union in, 219. 

Bridges and viaducts, destroyed, 
108-109; restored, 112, 119. 

British Claims Commission. 241- 
242 ; government and the Wies- 
baden agreement, 254; League 
of Help, 281-282, 291. 

Budget commission, quoted, 179, 
181; estimates of, 182; program 
of, for 1921, 191-192; criticism 
of government by, 194-197; 
sanitary regulations questioned 
by, 265-266. 

Buhl, Frank H., legacy of, 
284. 

Buildings, destroyed, 24, 165; 
farm, 167; industrial, 138, 140; 
funds for reconstruction of, 
174, 181. See also Churches, 
Houses, Public buildings, and 
Monuments. 

Bulletin of the Liberated Re- 
gions, 214, 263. 

Caldwell, M. R. J., 285. 

Calmette, Dr., commissioner on 
public health, 258. 

Camiers, sanitary camp at, 259. 

Canals, part of transport system, 
14; injured, 28, 120; restored, 
102, 120-121. 

Cantonal commissions on indem- 
nities, 85, 87, 89-92, 124, 165, 
170, 175-176, 192, 229, 243; 
number of, 197; dilatory meth- 
ods of, 201, 204-205; probable 
duration of, 222. 

Catholic Church, slow in restor- 
ing properties, 235-236. 

Cattle, see Farm animals. 

Censorship, military, 33. 



Central Purchasing Agency, 127- 
129; advance to, 176; closing 
up its affairs, 201 ; office of, at 
Wiesbaden, 244. 

Chambers of commerce, share of, 
in reconstruction, 139. 

Champagne, ancient province of, 
15-17. 

Chassemy, cooperative society in, 
218, 221. 

Children, cared for, 259-260, 290; 
hospital for, 281 ; vacation 
camp, 284. See Schools. 

China, laborers from, 245. 

Church, relation of with state, 
in care of monuments, 223; in 
restoring monuments, 230, 235. 

Churches and cathedrals, de- 
stroyed, 224-225; moral and 
spiritual effect of loss of, 236; 
furnishings of, 267; bells of, 
replaced, 289; restoration of, 
slow, 293. 

Circulars, issued by Ministry of 
the Liberated Regions, 79, 165, 
170, 203, 209, 233, 258, 266-267, 
271. 

Coal, brought from Germany, 
238-239; mining companies, 13, 
126, 141. See also Mines. 

Coefficients for computing in- 
demnities, 87-88; reduced, 163; 
varying, 181; too low, 194; 
question of, complex, 202-204. 

Colonies, law of war damages 
applicable to, 100. 

Communes, administration of, 
20; syndicates of, for recon- 
struction, 90; adoption of dev- 
astated, 279-282. 

Community, interests, 257-274; 
center in foyers, 277 ; American 
influence on, 289. 

Comtesse de Buyer, 283. 

Cooperative societies, agricul- 
tural, 156, 189-190, 206. 

Cooperative societies for recon- 
struction, 190-191, 194-195, 204, 
206-222; origin of, 207; supplies 
turned over to, 201 ; recognized 
by law, 208-210; control of. 



INDEX 



343 



210; conditions of approval of, 
212; object defined, 212-213; 
achievements of, 220; probable 
duration of, 221-222; loans to, 
by American Committee, 287; 
law on, quoted in full, 332- 
337. 

Cooperative spirit, rare before 
the war, 206; development of, 
207, 288-291. 

Coucy-le- Chateau, cooperative 
society in, 218-219. 

Credit National, became finan- 
cial agent of state, 177; issued 
securities, 177; accounts of, 
with cooperative societies, 211, 
213. 

Credits, voted by Parliament, 41 ; 
extended to farmers, 155-156, 
163, 174; to industry, 124, 131, 
173; voted for 1921, 184; 
opened with Ministry of the 
Interior, 42, 173; for preserva- 
tion and restoration of monu- 
ments, 233. 

Criticism, of government, 188- 
205; of reconstruction, 292- 
293. 

Cromwell, William Nelson, 284. 

Crops, prevailing, of devastated 
area, 11, 12; loss of, 41, 72; 
taken by Germans, 153; pre- 
miums paid for, 163; in 1920 
compared with 1914, 199-200. 

Denmark, contributions from, 
281. 

Department, administration of a, 
20. 

Devastated area, limits of, de- 
fined, 1, 3-4; total population 
of, 9-10; history of, 14-19; 
artistic interest of, 19-20; de- 
struction wrought in, 5-6, 8, 15, 
22-38, 292. 

Doubs, department of, 2. 

Doumer, M. Paul, Minister of 
Finance, 186. 

Doumergue, Gaston, Minister of 
the Colonies, 64. 

Duchene, A., 270. 



Economic council, 80-81. 

Eight-hour law, effect of, on min- 
ing industry, 147, 266; applica- 
tion of, in devastated area, 266- 
267. 

Employers' syndicates, 207. 

Est railway system, 102, 105-111; 
rebuilding of, 114-115; handling 
of troops by, 105-106; policy 
of, in reconstruction, 115. 

Evaluation, sec War damages. 

Eymond, Edouard, report of, 69. 

Farm animals, losses of, 31, 44; 
restoring, 153, 155, 158-160, 164- 
165 ; brought from abroad, 237 ; 
supplied by American Com- 
mittee, 287. 

Farmer, attachment of, to land, 
12, 133, 297; individualism of, 
153, 198, 206. 

Farms, size of, 11-12; war dam- 
ages as applied to, 164, 197; 
fewer, since reconstruction, 297. 

Financial questions involved in 
reconstruction, 39, 122, 139, 146- 
147, 172-187, 271-272; aid by in- 
dividuals and societies, 278^291. 

Fishing vessels, indemnity for, 
71, 307-308. 

Ford, George B., American archi- 
tect, 272. 

Forests, damage to, 30, 73, 169, 
170; restoration of, 168-171, 
293. 

Foyer des Campagnes (Le), 276, 
291. 

Foyers, built by Foyer des Com- 
pagnes, 277 ; built by American 
Committee for Devastated 
France, 288. 

Franco-Prussian war, compared 
with invasion of 1914-18, 4; 
results of, 18, 61. 

French Academy, represented on 
commission for restoration of 
monuments, 228. 

French Regional Association, 
resolutions passed by, 231-232. 

French Restoration Fund, 284- 
285. 



344 



INDEX 



Friends, British and American 
Societies of, 282, 291. 

General Labor Confederation, 
251. 

German advance, 2, 33; indus- 
trial reconstruction, 244; pro- 
posal for reconstruction, 247- 
251. 

Godin, A., 269. 

Government, aid of, in recon- 
struction, 116, 122-123, 140, 146, 
172, 272; criticism of, 84, 188- 
205, 294-295; relief societies 
regulated by, 276. 

Haute-Mame, department of, 2. 

Haute-Saone, department of, 2. 

Haut-Rhin, new department of, 
211. 

Highways, part of transport sys- 
tem, 14; injured, 28; restored, 
102, 121. 

Health, public, 257. See Hos- 
pitals, Medical, and Sanitation. 

Historic buildings, see Monu- 
ments; interest of devastated 
areas, 14-19. 

Holland, gift of buildings from, 
281. 

Hospitals, needing repair, 258; 
established, 282, 286, 288. 

Houses, temporary, 46, 94-97, 191- 
192, 195; workingmen's, 130, 
181, 273-274; funds for restora- 
tion of, 174; to be made in 
Germany, 252. 

Housing, 96-99; not given enough 
importance, 131 ; policy con- 
demned by budget commission, 
191-193; problem growing more 
serious, 294. 

Hundred Years' war, effect of, 16. 

Indemnities, reemployment of, 
65-70 ; fixed by law of 1919, 70- 
75. See War damages. 

Individualism, of farmers, 153, 
206 ; a hindrance to reconstruc- 
tion, 291. 

Industrial establishments, de- 



stroyed during war, 26; recon- 
struction of, 98, 134-138; em- 
ployees in, 135. 

Industrial reconstruction, office 
of, 82, 123-127; materials for, 
127-129, 243; relation of, to 
agriculture, 132-133, 196; min- 
istry of, see Ministry. 

Industry, prostration of, planned 
by Germans, 5; extent of, in 
1914, 14; reconstruction of, 
122-140; need for better or- 
ganization of, 140; held off 
from cooperative societies, 207- 
208; expansion of, since war, 
296. 

Inheritance, French law of, 12. 

International aspects of recon- 
struction, 237-256, 295. 

Iron mines, location of, 141, 149- 
151; output of, 150-152; dam- 
aged, 150-151; restored, 151- 
152. 

Italy, claims against, 243; la- 
borers from, 245, 256; labor 
convention with, 247. 

Law, for eight-hour day, 147, 266- 
267; on town planning, 299- 
307; on war damages, 307-332; 
on cooperative reconstruction 
societies, 333-338. 

Legal questions involved in re- 
construction, 39. 

Lens, town of, 8, 10; desolated 
by war, 25-26, 201 ; railway 
shops at, 108; new houses at, 
117, 146; mines near, 141-144, 
146, 148; houses in, built by 
Dutch, 281. 

Le Brun, M. A., Minister of the 
Liberated Regions, 79. 

Libraries, given to schools, 284. 

Lille, town of, workingmen's 
houses at, 117, 273; town plan 
adopted by, 272; children's va- 
cation camp at, 284. 

Lorraine, see Alsace-Lorraine. 

Loucheur, M. Louis, Minister of 
the Liberated Regions, address 
by, 89; approved municipal 



INDEX 



345 



loans, 186; speech in Septem- 
ber, 1921, 222; circular by, 233; 
at conferences on German 
share in reconstruction, 252; 
announced plans, 255. 

Machinery, see Agricultural. 

Malvy, L., Minister of the In- 
terior, 64. 

Marne, battle of, 7, 40, 109. 

Marne (Department of), 2; dev- 
astation of, 36; resuming in- 
dustry in, 137-139 ; cattle placed 
in, 158-159; restoration of soil 
in, 163; beet crop in, 200; 
cooperative societies in, 214; 
monuments destroyed in, 224; 
medical relief stations in, 258; 
children from, given holiday, 
259-260; children's hospital in, 
281. 

Marret, M. Georges, 217. 

Medical service, 257-258, 288-289; 
relief stations, 258-259. 

Meurthe-et-Moselle (Department 
of), 2, 13; devastation of, 37; 
houses offered for sale in, 95; 
industry resumed in, 137; iron 
mines in, 149; cattle placed in, 
158-159; monuments destroyed 
in, 225; medical relief stations 
in, 258; village in, rebuilt by 
Americans, 283. 

Meuse (Department of), 2; dev- 
astation of, 37 ; cattle placed 
in, 158-9; restoration of, 162; 
cooperative societies in, 215; 
monuments destroyed in, 225; 
medical relief stations in, 258; 
water supply and community 
house given to village in, 284. 
Military control supreme, 32; 
occupancy of buildings, 31 ; 
control of railways, 102-103. 
Mines, coal, 13, 141; iron, 13, 
149; destruction of, during war, 
26; commission to value, 73; 
restoration of, 141-152; pre-war 
production of, not restored, 
293; plans for new develop- 
ment of, 296. 



Minister of Colonies, 64. 
Ministry of Agriculture, helped 
farmers, 46; supplied tractors, 
293; plans for new develop- 
ment of, 296. 
Ministry of Commerce and In- 
dustry, 46. 
Ministry of Finance, involved in 
certain provisions of indem- 
nity laws, 78; empowered to 
grant advances, 176; opposed 
municipal loans, 186; repre- 
sented on commission for res- 
toration of monuments, 228; 
financial provisions of treaty 
of peace in the hands of, 244- 
245. 
Ministry of Industrial Recon- 
struction, relation of to law 
of 1919, 78; relation to office 
of industrial reconstruction, 82 ; 
bureau of, handled German 
coal, 238. 
Ministry of the Interior, caring 
for refugees, 46 ; credit funds in 
hands of, 173; represented on 
commission for restoration of 
monuments, 228; circular of, 
on public health, 257-258; com- 
mission of, on town planning 
law, 270-271, 302-303. 
Ministry of Justice, duties of, in 
connection with indemnity law, 
78. 
Ministry of Labor, 46; repre- 
sented on commission for res- 
toration of monuments, 228; 
applications for foreign labor 
addressed to, 245. 
Ministry of the Liberated Re- 
gions, order of, defining devas- 
tated areas, 1, 3; circulars 
issued by, 79, 165, 170, 203, 209, 
233, 258, 266, 271; reorganiza- 
tion of, 79-83; activity of, 85; 
policy of, in evaluating dam- 
ages, 164-165; favored munici- 
pal loans, 186 ; fixed budget for, 
proposed, 195-196; criticized by 
cooperative societies, 217; re- 
sponsible for reconstruction of 



346 



INDEX 



civil and religious buildings, 
not monuments, 227 ; furnished 
clothing to refugees, 258-259; 
appointed women inspectors, 
260; opened canteens, 261; 
established laboratories for 
water analysis, 263; supported 
community centers, 277-278. 

Ministry of Public Instruction 
and Fine Arts, care and restora- 
tion of historic buildings in 
hands of, 223, 226-227; special 
commission of, for restoration 
of monuments, 227-229. 

Ministry of Public Works and 
Transport, in control of rail- 
ways, 78, 103, 195; in charge 
of soil restoration service, 155. 

Ministry of War, authority of, 
over railways, 103; cooperation 
of, in regulating relief societies, 
276. 

Monuments, defined, 223 ; appro- 
priations for, not included, 185; 
destroyed, 224-226 ; special com- 
mission for, 227-229; little yet 
done in restoration of, 233-234, 
293. 

Morocco, law of war damages not 
applicable to, 100. 

Moselle, new department of, 211- 
212. 

Motors supplied for industrial 
establishments, 130. 

Munitions, explosion of, in soil, 
263-264. 

National Employment Bureau, 
246. 

Nord railway system, 102, 106- 
109; handling of troops by, 
106-107; losses of, 108-109; 
rebuilding of, 113-114; policy 
137-139; coal mines in, 141-144, 
houses for employees of, 117, 
273. 

Nord (Department of), 1-2, 9; 
devastation of, 34; municipal 
loan for resuming industry in, 
137-139; coal mines in, 141-144, 
146; cattle placed in, 158-159; 



La Bassee in, 187; medical 
relief stations in, 258; children 
from, given holiday, 260; com- 
munity house in, 281 ; gift of 
cattle to, 284. 

Norway, contributions from, 281. 

Nurses, work done by, 260-262; 
supplied by American Com- 
mittee for Devastated France, 
288. 

Ogier, M., Minister of the Lib- 
erated Regions, 210. 

Oise (Department of), 1-3; dev- 
astation of, 35-36; resuming in- 
dustry in, 137-139; cattle placed 
in, 158; beet crop in, 200; 
monuments destroyed in, 225; 
medical relief stations in, 
258. 

Parliament, voted credits for re- 
construction, 41 ; passed towTi 
planning law, 269. See Sen- 
ate and Chamber of Depu- 
ties. 

Pas-de-Calais (Department of) 
1-3, 9; devastation of, 34-35 
resuming industry in, 137-139 
coal mines in, 141-144, 147 
cattle placed in, 158-159; resto- 
ration of soil in, 162 ; beet crop 
in, 200; cooperative societies 
in, 215; medical relief stations 
in, 258; children from, given 
holiday, 259-260; village in, 
"adopted" in Paris, 280; gift 
of cattle to, 284. 

Personal property, indemnity for, 
72, 174, 267-268. 

Philanthropy, contribution of, to 
reconstruction, 275-291. 

Poincare, Raymond, 279. 

Poland, agreement with, concern- 
ing laborers, 246-247. 

Political organization of France, 
20-21. 

Polk, Miss Daisy, see Comtesse 
de Buyer. 

Population, of devastated areas, 
9-10, 99. 



INDEX 



347 



Portugal, agreement with, on war 
claims, 242-243; laborers from, 
245. 

Prefects, authority of, 20-21 ; to 
report losses, 41 ; various duties 
of, 81, 258, 265-266. 

Protectorates, law of war dam- 
ages applicable to, 100. 

Public buildings, restoration of, 
73, 293; destroyed, 224-226. 
See monuments. 

Railways, in war zone injured, 
27; new constructed for mili- 
tary purposes, 27, and later 
removed, 119; restored, 101- 
102, 118-119; military control 
of, 102-103. See Est and Nord 
railway systems. 

Railway stations, destroyed, 110, 
and restored, 114-115; tracks 
destroyed, 109-110, and re- 
stored, 113-115. 

Rathenau, Dr. Walter, at Wies- 
baden conference, 252. 

Real property, indemnity for, 71. 

Reconstitution, see Reconstruc- 
tion. 

Reconstruction, beginnings of, 
39-58; first commission on, 42- 
44; interministerial committee 
on, 46-49; organization of, 78- 
100; total expenditures for, 
179-183; international aspects 
of, 237-256; achievements of, 
summarized, 292-298. See Co- 
operative societies for recon- 
struction. 

Red Cross societies, 275-276. 

Reemployment of indemnities, 
insisted on by Chamber of 
Deputies, 66-69, 197, 309 seq. 

Refugees, cared for, 33, 46, 265. 
See Sinistres. 

Regional committees for indus- 
trial reconstruction, 126. 

Reims, city of, 6, 8, 10, 110; 
history of, 16-17; resuming in- 
dustry, 137; ruins long unre- 
lieved, 201 ; cooperative society 
largest in invaded area, 216- 



217; monuments destroyed, 
224; cathedral, 234, 281; adop- 
tion of city plan, 272; appeal 
by mayor of, 280; American 
gift to library in, 284; nursing 
center in, 290. 

Relief societies, 33, 275-291. 

Renaissance des Cites (La), a 
society for town planning, 269, 
272. 

Reparations Commission, claims 
presented to, 183, 241 ; repara- 
tions approved by, 237-238; 
Wiesbaden agreement referred 
to, 254. 

Reparations, German, related to 
war damages, 65, 76, 172, 184, 
237; basis for, 183; delay in, 
198; decision of Supreme 
Council regarding, 248. 

Reparations, interministerial com- 
mittee of, created, 241. 

Requisitions of enemy, indemnity 
for, 71. 

Revolving funds, classes of, 174; 
established for cooperative so- 
cieties, 211, 213-214. 

Reynald report to Senate, 67-69. 

Ribot, A., Minister of Finance, 
64, and Premier, 69. 

Rosenthal, Leon, 270. 

Sanitation, importance of, 257; 
relation of, to new buildings, 
265-266; m rebuilt towns, 274, 
297. 

Schools, instruction resumed in, 
99 ; importance of, 257 ; medical 
inspection in, 260-262; food 
stations in, 261 ; condition of 
buildings, 262; physical educa- 
tion in, 289. 

Seed, purchase of, 46, 155, 161 ; 
for trees, gift of American 
Forestry Association, 169; sup- 
plied by American Committee, 
287. 

Seine, departments of Seine- 
Inferieure,Seine-et-Loire,Seine- 
et-Marne, Seine-et-Oise, 2. 

Senate, representation in, 21; 



348 



INDEX 



traditional conception of, 66; 
attitude on indemnities, 69. 

Separation law, between church 
and state, 223; effect on recon- 
struction problems, 230, 235, 
236. 

Sinistres, 68-70; chief concern of, 
84; responsible for delay in 
settling indemnities, 91-92; in- 
dustrial, special problems of, 
124-126, 156-157, 202; disburse- 
ments to, 178; permitted to 
borrow on future indemnities, 
185-186, 201; in debt to state, 
194; formed cooperative soci- 
eties, 207, et al. See also 
Refusees. 

Skinner, Mr. William, 283. 

Soil of war zone injured, 28-29; 
efforts to restore, 75, 98-99, 155, 
164-165. 

Somme (Department of), 1-3; 
devastation of, 35; resuming 
industry in, 138-139; cattle 
placed in, 158-159; restoration 
of soil, 162; cooperative 
societies in, 215; rebuilding of 
group of villages in, 254-255; 
medical relief stations in, 258; 
children from, given holiday, 
259-260; memorial fountain in, 
283. 

Spa conference, 247. 

Stouvenot, M., vii, 142, 147. 

Sugar industry, 138-139, 293. 

Supreme Council, decision of, 
regarding reparations, 248. 

Systematic nature of destruction 
by Germans, 22, 39. 

Tardieu, M. Andre, vii, 14, 178, 

183; Minister of the Liberated 

Regions, 209. 
Temperament of French people 

unchanged, 297. 
Thirty Years' War, ravages of, 5 ; 

end of, 17-18. 
Toulemon, Andre, quoted, 66. 
Town halls, historic, destroyed, 

223-225; problems of restoring, 

230-231, 236. 



Town planning, 268-274; a new 
subject in France, 268; law for, 
passed, 270-271; law quoted in 
full, 299-305. 

Trade unions, relation of, to co- 
operative societies, 207. 

Transport system, extent of, 
before the war, 14-15; restora- 
tion of, 101-121 ; director gen- 
eral of, appointed, 103-104; 
transferred to Ministry of 
Public Works and Transport, 
103-104. 

Trees, see Forests. 

Troop trains, 105-106. 

Tuberculosis, among children, 
259. 

Tunis, law of war damages not 
applicable to, 100. 

Unemployed, office in Paris to 

place, 33. 
Union of French Associations for 

National Progress, 279, 290. 
Unions, of cooperative societies, 

215-216; trade, see Trade 

unions. 

Vauxaillon tunnel, 112-113. 

Verdun, strategic position of, 6; 
battle of, 6-7; population of, 
10; ravages of war in, 6, 110; 
history of, 17-18; siege of, 25; 
ruins of, 201; cathedral re- 
paired, 234. 

Versailles, treaty of, 65; repara- 
tion provisions of, 237 ; portion 
of, 239-241; in relation to 
Wiesbaden agreement, 253-254. 

Vosges (Department of), 2; dev- 
astation of, 38; resuming in- 
dustry in, 137; monuments 
destroyed in, 225; medical 
relief stations in, 258. 

War damages, 3, 31 ; conditions 
of awarding, 41-42; report of 
commission on, 43-45; fixed by 
law, 70-76; how paid, 74; 
superior commission on, 91 ; 
application of law of, to farm 



W 8 6 



INDEX 



349 



property, 164; total amount 
estimated, 180-181 ; law of, ap- 
plied to foreigners, 237; law of, 
quoted in full, 307-331. 
War, effect of reparation claims 
on future, 76-77; being for- 
gotten, 236. 



Water analyzed, 263; supply 
given to devastated villages, 
284. 

Wells in war zone injured, 30-31, 
262-263; restored, 99. 

Wiesbaden agreement, 252-253. 

Women inspectors appointed, 260. 




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